This will be my last message to all of you as UNC’s vice chancellor for research.

Significant research breakthroughs are highlighted annually by Science. According to the journal, the research breakthrough of the year for 2021 was protein structure predictions. Several runners up were also included on their list.

On the heels of the significant disruptions of 2020, followed by unique challenges of 2021, and now a looming threat of yet another Sars-CoV-2 variant at the start of 2022, our research support offices have remained operational through it all. We know that the fluid nature of the pandemic is personally taxing, and we are so appreciative that our workforce has remained dedicated through all these trials.

As 2021 comes to an end, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Joyce Tan and I want to reflect on progress of Initiative 4: Discover, the research framework for the University’s strategic plan Carolina Next: Innovations for Public Good. Discover is … Read more

Collaboration incentivizes open science, which is a topic of interest in the research community today. One definition of open science is “the idea that scientific knowledge of all kinds should be openly shared as early as is practical in the discovery process.”