U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced on Friday that the University of Hawaii at Manoa will be one of the universities participating in the Department of the Interior’s Climate Science Studies. 

The UH facility will be one of eight such centers across the country, and will be called the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center. UH’s Hilo campus and the University of Guam will serve as partners. 

“The nationwide network of Climate Science Centers will provide the scientific talent and commitment necessary for understanding how climate change and other landscape stressors will change the face of the United States,” Salazar said in a statement.

The other two universities announced on Friday were the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the University of Oklahoma.