University of Costa Rica, San José

The University of Costa Rica (UCR), a founding organization of the Hispanic Research Center's resplendent quetzal project, is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious public institution of higher learning in Costa Rica. Approximately 39,000 students attend UCR each year. The resplendent quetzal project has strong ties with the UCR Departments of Biology and Microbiology (in the health area), Anthropology and Social Science, and the Molecular and Cellular Biology Research Center (CIBCM). UCR also has the Lankester Botanical Garden, a facility focused on orchid conservation. The research journal Biología Tropical is useful for this project.

The university has international cooperative alliances with the DAAD (the German Academic Trust); the governments of Japan, France, Mexico, Spain, and Taiwan (ROC); the European Union; the Organization of American States (OAS or OEA); and US research institutions such as the Organization for Tropical Studies, whose Costa Rica headquarters are at UCR's central campus (Rodrigo Facio campus) and who is also a founding member of the resplendent quetzal project.