Institutes may span two or more colleges, but often they are centered in a single college and governed from within that college. Laboratories generally are centered and governed within a college or a center. Most times, laboratories provide facilities and administration for large interdisciplinary research units within a college. Programs are organized around unified plans of study with a central focus. They bring faculty members together from various departments within a single college or across colleges.
Programs usually report to a college or a center.
Cornell has five national research centers. These centers have charters that define their missions to serve broad national and international scientific communities. They also reflect a partnership of academia, government, and industry. All national research centers at Cornell report to the Vice Provost for Research. This directory presents the scope of each center, institute, laboratory, and program.