The Saint Louis University Geospatial Institute — also known as GeoSLU — is a consortium of faculty and students from various disciplines to promote and develop new research ideas, and house high-tech computational facilities to advance research and enhance graduate and undergraduate education.
Vision and Mission
Our vision is to build a regional hub and internationally recognized center of excellence in multidisciplinary geospatial science through impactful and innovative research, education, partnerships, and services, across domains and aligned with SLU's Jesuit tradition.
The mission of the SLU Geospatial Institute is to understand our ever-changing world for informed decision making, on the ground and from above, connected together through space and time.
A Big Idea
The creation of the Geospatial Institute in 2019 was started with “GeoSLU: The Geospatial Research, Training, and Innovation Enterprise,” which was funded by Saint Louis University’s Big Ideas competition. The goals of the Geospatial Institute were to build distinctive strengths in geospatial research, training, service and innovation at SLU, to contribute to establishing St. Louis as a national geospatial hub, to apply geospatial insights to regional and global challenges, and to develop new partnerships with innovators, industry, federal agencies, local and regional governments and universities.
The Geospatial Institute consisted of three pillars:
- Research: The Geospatial Institute will promote research through externally funded grants and by applying geospatial insights to important regional and global challenges.
- Data Support Services: The Geospatial Institute will provide geospatial analytics and data management to faculty and students engaged in geospatial research.
- Teaching and Training: The Geospatial Institute will train the next generation of geospatial scientists and innovators by providing educational opportunities for students in basic and advanced geospatial techniques and methods.
The Geospatial Institute established a connected consortium of faculty and students from diverse disciplines to coordinate and accelerate applied geospatial science through:
- Exceptional educational opportunities
- New applied research
- Coordinated data services
- Advanced analytics and computational infrastructure
- Sustainable external funding
- Local, national and global partnerships