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Institutes ramping up fundraising efforts

By Ben McNeely | Media General

Published: November 25, 2008

KANNAPOLIS — With the UNC institutes opening shop at the North Carolina Research Campus, research is ramping up. And so is the fundraising.
UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp told a group of donors and friends of the university and political and local leaders last week that state funding for the UNC Nutrition Research Institute is not enough.
The nutrition institute has assembled an advisory board of influential regional leaders to raise awareness of the institute and help with fundraising.
"We want the major corporations in Charlotte to be aware of what is going on here in Kannapolis," said former Gov. Jim Martin, who is heading the advisory board. "The challenge is growing in a down market. You don't have to launch the rocket, but you do have to attract the talented faculty here."
Board members include a who's who of Charlotte metro region leaders, such as Tom Smith, former CEO of Food Lion; Phil Ford, assistant coach of the Charlotte Bobcats; Larry Hinsdale, an executive vice president with Carolinas HealthCare System; and Hector Henry of the Concord City Council.
N.C. State University is also looking to donors to support its Plants for Human Health Institute, said director Mary Ann Lila, although the agricultural research group is going to use the resources of the main campus in Raleigh, the alumni lists of College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and corporate partners to help garner support.
"We don't have an independent fundraiser," Lila said. "We will work through our normal channels with industry to support our mission."
Lila said the money would go toward building interdiscisplinary research teams and for travel back and forth between Kannapolis and Raleigh.
"I think we have the money for glassware and laboratory equipment," Lila said. "We'll need start up seed money to start collecting data, though."
The Plants for Human Health Institute will appoint a scientific advisory board, Lila said, to help facilitate the scientific mission of the institute. And Lila has talked with Dr. Steve Zeisel, director of the UNC NRI, about a joint board to promote the interdisciplinary efforts of both research labs.
"He agreed that it would be the best approach to present us as a campus, rather than individual institutions," Lila said.
The opening of the Core Research Laboratory in October was the beginning of the next phase of the research campus project. Equipped with the best scientific instruments in the world, campus leaders are hoping it will attract the best scientific minds. But the economy is a factor, said Steve Leath, president of the Murdock Research Institute and vice president for research of the UNC system.
"We are very concerned about the state budget in the spring," he said. "We're going to make the request for faculty salary support. But it's difficult for anybody to get any increases."
Leath said the UNC system will request about $10 million more in recurring funding for its seven research institutes at the research campus. He also said they have hired about one-quarter of the 50 faculty members the public university system wants at the campus.
This is all part of the system's five-year start-up plan for the campus, he said.
"We hope we get that money," Leath said. "We are very concerned about the state budget."
• Contact reporter Ben McNeely: 704-789-9131
• Comment on this story online at www.independenttribune.com