What is OASIS?
Opportunities to Advance Sustainability, Innovation, and Social Inclusion, or OASIS, is an innovation park by UCR. It will serve as a hub of innovation, incubation, and research in clean energy, social mobility, intelligent transportation, agriculture, and natural resources management.
UCR is making OASIS in close collaboration with Riverside County, the City of Riverside, the Riverside Chamber of Commerce, and several on- and off-campus stakeholders.
It will have shared facilities and incubator space for technology transfer and startup creation activities. In a nutshell, OASIS will be UCR’s innovation outpost and an umbrella entity to take UCR’s research, innovation, and entrepreneurial work ahead.
The innovation hub will provide appropriate training to the next generation of researchers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders; create high-paying jobs and new start-up companies; and help invigorate the region’s economy.
OASIS Innovation Park
About OASIS Campus
The State of California has provided $15 million for site acquisition and Phase 1 of the OASIS building. To bring OASIS to life in a way closest to its vision, UCR has hired Brailsford and Dunlavey. This consulting firm specializes in planning, developing, and managing community projects for colleges, universities, municipalities, and sports venues.
The consulting firm will help build the feasibility of the OASIS campus.
UCR plans to have several facilities in the OASIS innovation park, including:
- Laboratories
- Community space
- Integrated office and retail space
- Training and public outreach center
- Industry collaboration and visitor center
- Incubator Space for entrepreneurial support

Scope of OASIS
The initial scope of programs and activities of OASIS will be focused on five verticals which include:
- Clean transportation and infrastructure
- Clean energy and fuels
- Agriculture technology and food security
- Community Health
- Natural resource management
And from the perspective of the program, OASIS will launch initiatives for:
- Research and innovation
- Research park and test beds
- Education and workforce development
- Company incubation and pilot projects
- Science to policy center
OASIS and California Air Resources Board (CARB)
UCR also coordinates its efforts with the California Air Resources Board, or CARB, under its OASIS innovation park.

Cleantech Park
The first building or facility that OASIS will house is a cleantech park with laboratory facilities from CE-CERT, also called the Bourns College of Engineering, Center for Environmental Research & Technology (CE-CERT).
Startempire Wire’s Take on OASIS
We have been reporting on grants, funding, and other entrepreneurial ventures of UCR. The university is at the edge of making Riverside the go-to place for research, startups, and science. It recently the following grants from various organizations:
- $900,000 CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA).
- $2 Million from The Attorney General’s Automobile Emissions Research and Technology Fund
- A $2 Million grant from the National Science Foundation for quantum computing research
- A grant of $450K from SCEIN
With that being said, this is a huge multiyear project and will involve much reporting. It will also involve various stakeholders we will try to interview to bring more insights and clarity about this project.
We covered this on Weekly Wire Round up
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