Research at the KGS focuses primarily on energy, water, and the environment and addresses natural resource challenges facing the state of Kansas.

The KGS reports to the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Kansas and has a 12-member advisory council to provide review and guidance.

[3] CO2 is a natural and essential component of the atmosphere, but it is also a greenhouse gas—a byproduct of fossil fuels emissions from vehicles and such stationary sources as electric, cement, ethanol, and fertilizer plants—that has been considered a cause of climate change.

In the summer of 2013, CO2 transported from the Abengoa Bioenergy Corporation's ethanol plant near Colwich will be injected at the KGS Wellington field site in Sumner County for both enhanced oil recovery and CO2 sequestration in the deep Arbuckle saline aquifer.

The KGS recently completed a modeling study of the High Plains aquifer in southwestern Kansas for the area in GMD 3, one of the state's five Groundwater Management Districts.

The U.S. Department of Energy is funding another KGS project on the integrated use of surface and subsurface nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for measuring and mapping saturated hydraulic conductivity in three dimensions.

The KGS also continues work with Michigan State University and others as part of an NSF-funded study to model the entire High Plains aquifer.

Inquiries for these data have increased due to ongoing drought conditions in the state and concerns over water-level declines in the High Plains aquifer.

With KGS support, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment released a program that allows online submission of digital water-well drilling records.

A detailed KGS study underway of the stratigraphic architecture of the High Plains aquifer is being funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Geoarcheology encompasses the investigation and interpretation of sediments, soils, and landforms to help identify areas of potential cultural deposits, date finds, and assess prehistoric environments.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded the KGS a grant to advance the research and development of an automated subterrain anomaly-detection system using active seismic-imaging (ASI) technologies to be used for clandestine tunnel detection, classification, and evaluation.

Watkins Dam in Utah; and U.S. Geological Survey funding to study geophysical-methods development for subsurface characterization of near-surface settings.