Core funding for UUSS comes from three sources:

1. The State of Utah through an annual line item appropriation
2. The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program through cooperative agreements that last 3-5 years, in partnership with the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS)
3. The USGS Volcano Hazards Program through cooperative agreements that last 3-5 years, in partnership with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO)

Typically these three sources account for about 90% of the UUSS annual budget. The remaining 10% of the budget comes from a variety of sources that include the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the USGS NEHRP small grants program, the Air Force Research Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Utah Department of Emergency Management.

In June 2007, Kennecott Copper of Utah provided a generous donation to the University of Utah’s College of Mines and Earth Sciences to establish the Rio Tinto Earthquake Information Center—a state-of-the-art facility for earthquake information and community outreach. The facility is part of the UUSS space for seismic network operations, occupied in the spring of 2009, in the Frederick A. Sutton Building on the University of Utah campus.