Currently the US volcano community is spread out over many academic institutions, includes several government agencies, is fragmented and would benefit from coordination. Often non-detection of initial volcanic unrest, and uncoordinated response to volcanic activity and eruptions leads to data of different types getting collected at different times and locations or not at all. This results in inefficient resource use and limited impact of the information obtained. 

The Purpose of the NSF-Funded CONVERSE Center is to enable, organize and focus the collaboration of US academic researchers, the USGS, NASA, the Smithsonian and foreign entities involved in volcano science. The goal of the enhanced collaboration is to advance our ability to monitor the unrest and run-up to volcanic eruptions and once an eruption occurs, to collect critical data and samples to develop next-generation physical/chemical models of volcanoes and through these understand processes of magma generation, transfer and eruption.