The Sun Grant Association is a group of six U.S. universities that serve as regional centers of the Sun Grant Initiative, established by the U.S. Congress in the Sun Grant Research Initiative Act of 2003. They research and develop sustainable and environmentally friendly bio-based energy alternatives. The Department of Transportation, Department of Energy, and the Department of Agriculture are partners in the initiative. The centers were established at land-grant universities to serve different geographic regions of the United States, in the tradition of the Congress-established programs of sea-grant colleges in 1966 and space-grant colleges in 1988.

Participating institutions

The following six universities are classified as national participants and serve as regional centers. Numerous universities participate within each region as regional participants:

• Oklahoma State University hosts the South-Central Center, including Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.
• Oregon State University hosts the Western Center, including Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington
• Pennsylvania State University hosts the Northeastern Center, including Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia. From 2004 to 2014, Cornell University administered the northeast's center.^[1]
• South Dakota State University is the National Lead Sun Grant Center and hosts the North-Central Center, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
• University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa hosts the Western Insular Pacific Subcenter, including Alaska, American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau.
• University of Tennessee at Knoxville hosts the Southeastern Center, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Virginia.