The Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) is a Multicampus Research Unit of the University of California (UC). IGPP was founded in 1946 at UC Los Angeles with a charter to further research in the earth and planetary sciences and related fields. The Institute now has branches at UC campuses in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Riverside, and at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories. The University-wide IGPP has played an important role in establishing interdisciplinary research in the earth and planetary sciences. For example, IGPP was instrumental in founding the fields of physical oceanography and space physics, which at the time fell between the cracks of established university departments. Because of its multicampus orientation, IGPP has sponsored important interinstitutional consortia in the earth and planetary sciences. Each of the five branches has a somewhat different intellectual emphasis as a result of the interplay between strengths of campus departments and Laboratory programs. The IGPP branch at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was approved by the Regents of the University of California in 1982. IGPP-LLNL emphasizes research in tectonics, geochemistry, and astrophysics. It provides a venue for studying the fundamental aspects of these fields, thereby complementing LLNL programs that pursue applications of these disciplines in national security and energy research. IGPP-LLNL is directed by Charles Alcock and was originally organized into three centers: Geosciences, stressing seismology; High-Pressure Physics, stressing experiments using the two-stage light-gas gun at LLNL; and Astrophysics, stressing theoretical and computational astrophysics. In 1994, the activities of the Center for High-Pressure Physics were merged with those of the Center for Geosciences. The Center for Geosciences, headed by Frederick Ryerson, focuses on research in geophysics and geochemistry. The Astrophysics Research Center, headed by Kem Cook, provides a home for theoretical and observational astrophysics and serves as an interface with the Physics Directorate's astrophysics efforts. The IGPP branch at LLNL (as well as the branch at Los Alamos) also facilitates scientific collaborations between researchers at the UC campuses and those at the national laboratories in areas related to earth science, planetary science, and astrophysics. It does this by sponsoring the University Collaborative Research Program (UCRP), which provides funds to UC campus scientists for joint research projects with LLNL. Additional information regarding IGPP-LLNL projects and people may be found at http://wwwigpp.llnl.gov/. The goals of the UCRP are to enrich research opportunities for UC campus scientists by making available to them some of LLNL's unique facilities and expertise, and to broaden the scientific program at LLNL through collaborative or interdisciplinary work with UC campus researchers. UCRP funds (provided jointly by the Regents of the University of California and by the Director of LLNL) are awarded annually on the basis of brief proposals, which are reviewed by a committee of scientists from UC campuses, LLNL programs, and external universities and research organizations. Typical annual funding for a collaborative research project ranges from $5,000 to $30,000. Funds are used for a variety of purposes, such as salary support for UC graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty; and costs for experimental facilities. A statistical overview of IGPP-LLNL's UCRP (colloquially known as the mini-grant program) is presented in Figures 1 and 2. Figure 1 shows the distribution of UCRP awards among the UC campuses, by total amount awarded and by number of proposals funded. Figure 2 shows the distribution of awards by center.
