Our State’s 33 Labs Make a $2.6 Billion Impact

On any given day in Colorado, scientists at federal labs including the CDC in Fort Collins, NOAA in Boulder and NREL in Golden are studying diseases that are difficult to control, monitoring weather patterns and working on new ways to create and conserve energy.

In all, 33 federal labs call Colorado home. It’s one of the largest concentrations of federally funded science and research centers in the U.S. They make a critical impact for our state’s life science community.

Horsetooth Reservoir in Fort Collins. Several federally funded labs, including the CDC, are based in the city.

Colorado’s federal labs:

• Contributed an estimated $2.6 billion to Colorado’s economy in 2016

• Supported more than 17,600 jobs

• Employed nearly 7,800 scientists and support staff, creating an additional 9,820 jobs through the multiplier effect

The labs help make Colorado a national hub for scientific research and innovation, and develop a deep pool of scientific talent in the state.

Colorado’s major federal labs and research centers include:

• • • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – serves as a national
      and international leader in the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases and bacteria. (Fort Collins)
      
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    • Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) – directs research in
      the atmospheric sciences into practical applications in weather and climate (Fort Collins)
      
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    • Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) – dedicated to research
      targeted at all aspects of Earth System Science and communicating its findings to the global scientific community (Boulder)
      
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    • National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR) – managed by UCAR, is a National Science Foundation
      R&D Center (Boulder)
      
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    • National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – promotes U.S. innovation and industrial
      competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology (Boulder)
      
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    • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – the federal government’s top agency
      for monitoring our climate, the space environment, and ocean resources (Boulder)
      
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    • National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) – the nation’s primary laboratory for renewable
      energy and energy efficiency R&D (Golden)
      
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    • University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) – dedicated to exploring and studying
      our atmosphere and its interaction with the sun, oceans, biosphere, and society (Boulder)

Read the study by the University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business

Learn more and download the report from co-labs.org.