The USGS Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS), the basic research group for the National Geospatial Program, researches and develops solutions and innovations for The National Map as part of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, the emerging Geospatial and GeoSemantic Web. CEGIS researchers are Federal scientists in the USGS that lead collaborative research projects involving other Federal researchers and academic affiliates from the university environment. CEGIS research is supported through the National Geospatial Technical Operations Center and results of the research often become operational components for The National Map, its products and services, such as US Topo.