The UWS/UWM Great Lakes Water Institute includes the Center for Great Lakes Studies, a UW Center of Excellence. It cooperates with such UWM academic departments as Architecture, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Economics, Geography, Geophysics, Mathematics, Physics, and Urban Planning to provide resources for studies from the undergraduate through the doctoral level, as well as public educational programs. Topics of study include: water resources engineering and pollution control; sediments; oceanography; shipping; socio-economic research, the biology of plants, animals, and bacteria, with emphasis on fish and human populations; and biological/chemical interactions.

Research level for the several cooperating departments.

        The following LC classification range descriptions represent areas of concentration for Great Lakes studies:

        GC (Oceanography): General; Methodology (e.g., geographical information systems); Research. Expeditions; Physical oceanography (e.g., density, temperature); Dynamics of the ocean (e.g., waves, currents, tides); Marine sediments; Oceanography by world region; Marine pollution. Selectively collected categories: Underwater exploration; Estuarine oceanography; Marine resources.

        QH (Natural History (general). Biology (general)): Freshwater biology. Selectively collected category: Physiographic distribution.

        TC (Hydraulic Engineering): Harbors. Coasts; Rivers. Lakes. Water supply. Selectively collected categories: Dams; Drainage.

        TS (Manufacturers): The following category is selectively collected: Packaging.

Mainly English.