UNC system projects get grants; $3.8 million will go to 18 faculty research proposals
CHAPEL HILL -- The UNC system has announced $3.8 million in grant awards to 18 faculty research projects showing strong economic development potential, including a study at the Chapel Hill campus that addresses regional water resource management.
These projects are expected to provide solutions to problems facing the state and possibly lead to the creation of new jobs, both key concerns among the list of recommendations in a UNC Tomorrow Commission report released earlier this month.
Funded projects were selected from 35 proposals submitted by 13 campuses. The awards allocate $3 million appropriated by the General Assembly earlier this year for university-based research on North Carolina's economic future to a series of proposals intended to create new ideas and jobs in biotechnology, nanotechnology, optics, health care, natural products, environmental science and marine science.
"The university is committed to playing a critical role in helping to imagine and shape the state's economy," said Steve Leath, UNC vice president for research. "These grants will help us, in collaboration with local and state agencies and private businesses, to do the kind of research that will improve existing products and processes and create new innovations that will fuel our future."
The grants include funding to improve the efficient development and use of biofuels through work being conducted by Appalachian State University, N.C. A&T State University and N.C. State University. Another pair of projects will fund research at UNC, UNC Greensboro and N.C. State University targeted at improving strategic water resource management and protection of water quality.
Other research projects will focus on the economic impact of rising sea levels, novel uses for traditional crops, the emerging field of nanotextiles and the production of natural products.
The Tomorrow Commission was charged by UNC system President Erskine Bowles with recommending how the universities could better serve the state in the future. Its 48-page draft report made recommendations in seven broad areas and included the controversial recommendation to study whether "undocumented students who graduate from North Carolina high schools and who are academically qualified for admission to a UNC institution should be charged in-state tuition."
The report will go to the Board of Governors next month.