The UC Davis Coffee Center on November 1, 2024. Photo by Gregory Urquiaga / UC Davis. Used with permission.
The Specialty Coffee Association is giving $1 million to the University of California, Davis, to establish an ongoing fellowship for graduate-level coffee research.
The new Specialty Coffee Association Endowed Fellowship in Coffee Science will be based at the UC Davis Coffee Center, where graduate researchers work across fields including engineering, chemistry, sensory science, agriculture, roasting, brewing and post-harvest processing.
The gift expands a nearly decade-old relationship between the UC Davis Coffee Center, established in 2014, and the SCA, the world’s largest coffee industry trade group. The SCA was the primary partner for the Center’s first major research project, exploring fundamental principles of brewing, launched in 2017.
It was the first of numerous industry-supported research and event projects involving collaboration between the Coffee Center, the SCA and the SCA’s science research arm, the Coffee Science Foundation.
According to the SCA, the new $1 million gift to the Center will be invested by UC Davis as an endowment. Approximately 4% — or $40,000 at the current level — will be distributed annually to support an SCA Fellow’s graduate research, with remaining earnings reinvested into the fund.
The organizations have not yet publicly outlined application procedures, eligibility requirements or when the first SCA Fellow will be selected.
The Coffee Center’s dedicated research and teaching facility opened in 2024, providing laboratories for brewing, sensory evaluation, green coffee storage and chemical analysis, as well as a pilot roastery.
“One of the longstanding missions of the UC Davis Coffee Center has been to establish and nurture a strong academic talent pipeline in support of the coffee industry,” UC Davis Coffee Center Founding Director William Ristenpart said in the SCA’s announcement. “This new endowed fellowship dramatically advances that mission by directly supporting graduate students and bringing perspectives and experience from around the world into coffee research at UC Davis.”
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