ESRI Consortium
UC Berkeley's Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Consortium is a group of campus departments and units who support academic and research use of ESRI products — also casually known as GIS products — through sharing costs, training, data, and other resources.
The College of Environmental Design (CED) represents the campus in the Office of the President's annually negotiated license contract between the university and ESRI. CED is responsible for the initial payment, subsequent allocation of campus licenses, distribution of training or conference materials as provided by ESRI, maintenance of the campus license server, and systems administration back-end support to consortium members.
- How do I sign up?
- What is included in the consortium membership?
- Who is and who should be a consortium member?
- What is the annual subscription cost and how is it calculated?
- How do I provide ESRI products to students?
To join, send an email to our license contact and an IOC will be sent to cover the current’s year subscription.
For technical questions or help connecting to the server, contact the system administrator.
If there are issues with processing your unit’s IOC, contact the financial administrator.
With a consortium membership, you will be able to:
- Connect to the campus ESRI License Server (housed in and maintained by CED)
- Connect an unlimited number of your departmental/unit computer labs to that server
- Access unlimited licenses for members of your academic or research unit
- Sign up for free passes to certain ESRI-sponsored events or conferences
- Sign up and use online training
- Join a UC Berkeley campus mailing list of fellow admin consortium users
The consortium exists to manage license purchasing and operate a campus ESRI server. Membership does not include training or repair services. While the parent ESRI provides backend support to members of technical staff, units are tasked with end-user support. If no dedicated staff exist, there are some overhead units that offer help – CED offers classed on GIS, the Geospatial Innovation Facility (GIF) provides GIS advising, and D-Lab offers other services (including consulting services).
Any academic or administrative department, research group, or organized research unit associated with UCOP, UC Berkeley, or Lawrence Berkeley National Lab is eligible for membership. Since 2012, the number of members has hovered between 12 and 15 each year.
2021 Consortium Members include: Archaeological Research Facility, BNHM, College of Environmental Design, D-Lab, EH&S, Facilities Services, Geography, Geospatial Innovation Facility, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, Human Rights Center, LBNL, School of Law, the Library, School of Public Health, Safe Transportation Research & Education Center, and UCOP Institutional Research & Planning.
The ESRI mailing list is restricted to departmental/unit representatives and can be joined upon request through Google groups. Emails include recent ESRI news, breaking developments in GIS on campus, and recommendations.
Since 2014, the cost of consortium membership has been at or below $1,500 per year, but the annual renewal fee depends upon actual costs and the number of consortium members. The way the yearly cost is calculated is explained below.
Cost of the campus license (negotiated by UCOP and prepaid by CED) + cost of technical efforts by the system administrator + cost of technical server-based equipment maintenance and infrastructure (if needed) ÷ number of consortium members
Each year, in the June-July timeframe, a subscription renewal notice is sent to all current members. Based on the number of units who indicate they will renew, the actual cost is calculated and an IOC is then sent with renewal instructions.
If you are a member of the consortium, your students can get copies for free. Please submit a ticket and we will send you a code and instructions for a free one-year license.
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