The Bishop Museum’s Amy B. H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden is a 12 acre garden site in Captain Cook featuring a collection of 250 types of plants used by Native Hawaiians. The Amy Greenwell Garden supports Native Hawaiian cultural traditions of land use and plants and conserves the plant resources of traditional Hawaiian cultural activities. To accomplish this, the garden discovers and shares knowledge of Hawaiian ethnobotany, maintains a repository for native Hawaiian and Polynesian introduced plants, works for native plant conservation, and preserves an archaeological remnant of the Kona Field System on the garden site.

The Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation is a culturally-based organization established by the offspring of the late Luka and Edith Kanaka'ole, founded on the vibrant traditions of the cultural connection inherited from their forefathers. The Foundation serves to perpetuate the teachings, beliefs, practices, philosophy and tradition of Edith K. Kanaka'ole. The intention of the Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation, a nonprofit entity, is to provide scholarships for higher and cultural education through income from specially designed cultural workshops, traditional rites of passage, and performances. The Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation staff serves on the Board of Directors of the Kohala Center and advises the Center on cultural issues.

The Kamehameha Schools have turned the entire island into a living classroom and laboratory of ethically-informed, multidisciplinary teaching and research. Programs vetted by The Kohala Center have been granted access to the Kamehameha Schools' vast landholdings. These include volcanic sites, pristine rain forests, valleys and seashore environments.

Hawai'i Community College, The Kohala Center's partner in workforce development, will create training and certification programs for the new skills and new occupations that evolve from the work of The Natural Energy Laboratory, The Kohala Center, and its Island and U.S. mainland partners. Faculty members from Hawaii Community College's Hawaiian Lifestyles Program provide essential instruction in the cultural and spiritual landscape of Hawai'i Island to our mainland academic research and teaching partners.

The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai'i (NELHA), an agency of the State of Hawai'i and The Kohala Center's partner in business incubation, as well as in research and development, will advance knowledge in two fields: alternative energy and marine biotechnology. The Natural Energy Laboratory proposes collaborative work that involves the design of research and development facilities and research programs on the west coast of Hawai'i Island.

The Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center (PBARC) is a United States Department of Agriculture facility based in Hilo. The mission of PBARC is to develop basic and applied information to strengthen agriculture in Hawai'i and the Pacific Basin in an environmentally acceptable and sustainable manner.

The Kalakaua Marine Education Center at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo operates the University of Hawaii at Hilo sailing and motor vessels and coordinates the field activities of the Marine Option Program and the Marine Science Summer Program, including the innovative course in coral reef research techniques (QUEST). The Center supports the Marine Science Department, which offers a well-rounded degree in the marine sciences, and is working with The Kohala Center toward establishing a field station at Puako on the Kona side of the Island of Hawai'i. Recently, a young graduate of the Marine Science Department, Erica Perez, was selected as a teaching intern for a Brown University - Kohala Center marine sciences program, offered to undergraduates. Erica's work was outstanding, and she has been invited to assist in Brown's summer environmental sciences program for high school students in Rhode Island.