CITRIS mission and history (web)
Citation
CITRIS and the Banatao Institute. “Mission and History.” Web page, date not stated. https://citris-uc.org/about/mission-history/. Read 2026-11-05.
Bottom line
- CITRIS is one of the four Governor Gray Davis Institutes for Science and Innovation. The state, UC and “hundreds of leading businesses” created them in 2000-2001. The others are QB3, Calit2 and CNSI.
- It describes an “invention ecosystem” of seed funding, testbeds, a nanofabrication lab, an invention lab and a startup foundry. The Banatao Institute name came in 2016 after a donor gift.
Background
The page repeats the About text, then gives the history of the institute, the four Governor Gray Davis Institutes, the Banatao Institute and its donors. It is the fullest public statement of the state-created, multi-campus institute model within UC.
Key claims
- “Since its creation in 2001 as one of Governor Gray Davis’ institutes for science and innovation at the University of California, CITRIS has demonstrated an impressive return on investment by any measure. Through collaboration with industry, government agencies, and international partners, CITRIS has enabled innovations in nanotechnology, computer science, engineering, manufacturing, social media and other sectors.” (History)
- “In 2000, the California governor’s office launched four visionary Institutes for Science and Innovation. The institutes share a vital mission: to address large-scale societal problems through interdisciplinary research and new market applications.” (Governor Gray Davis Institutes for Science & Innovation)
- “The state of California, the University of California and hundreds of leading businesses joined together in an unprecedented partnership to lay the foundation for California’s future economic and social development. These multicampus institutes are opening doors to a new understanding, new solutions and new applications through essential research in biomedicine, bioengineering, nanosystems, telecommunications and information technology.” (Governor Gray Davis Institutes for Science & Innovation)
- The other three institutes: “The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UCSF”; “The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CalIT2) at UC Irvine and UC San Diego”; “The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara”. (Governor Gray Davis Institutes for Science & Innovation)
- “From concept to prototype, the CITRIS invention ecosystem includes competitive seed funding, specialized testbeds, the Berkeley Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory at CITRIS, the CITRIS Invention Lab and the CITRIS Foundry.” (Mission and History)
- “This widening sphere of influence was celebrated with a new name, ‘CITRIS and the Banatao Institute,’ which debuted across the four campuses in fall 2016.” (The Banatao Institute)
Evidence and method
The institute’s own page. “Impressive return on investment” has no figure beside it.
Limits
The page gives no funding amounts, no governance structure and no statutory citation for the institutes’ creation. It does not say what the state’s share of the original funding was.