The University of California, Riverside is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on 1,900 acres in a suburban district of Riverside with a branch campus of 20 acres in Palm Desert. In 1907, the predecessor to UCR was founded …The University of California, Riverside is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on 1,900 acres in a suburban district of Riverside with a branch campus of 20 acres in Palm Desert. In 1907, the predecessor to UCR was founded as the UC Citrus Experiment Station, Riverside which pioneered research in biological pest control and the use of growth regulators.