The University of North Carolina announced grant awards totaling more than $3.8 million to support 18 faculty research efforts that hold strong economic development potential and could also provide real solutions to problems facing the state and lead to creation of new jobs. Faculty from 13 UNC campuses will work collaboratively on these projects.

The awards allocate $3 million appropriated by the NC General Assembly earlier this year for University-based research on North Carolina’s economic future, along with other University funds, to a series of proposals that will create new ideas and jobs in biotechnology, nanotechnology, optics, health care, natural products, environmental science, and marine science.

Funded projects were selected from 35 proposals submitted by 13 campuses, and leverage more than $4.4 million in private and federal funding. The nine “lead” campuses receiving grant awards include Appalachian State University, East Carolina University, NC A&T State University, NC Central University, NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, UNC Greensboro, and UNC Wilmington. Faculty at UNC Asheville and Western Carolina University, as well as several community colleges and private universities, will also play key roles.

The awards coincide with the completion of a months-long series of forums asking people across the state what they believe they need from their public University over the next 20 years. Earlier this month, the UNC Tomorrow Commission released a series of draft recommendations that included strong support for more direct University involvement in shaping the state’s economic future.

“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 ASU, NCA&T, and NC State. Another pair of projects will fund research at UNC-Chapel Hill, UNCG, and NC State targeted at improving strategic water resource management and protection of water quality. Other research projects will focus on the economic impact rising sea levels, novel uses of traditional crops, the emerging field of nanotextiles, and the production of natural products.