Addressing the world’s biggest and most complex challenges requires the convergence of a variety of types of expertise outside of siloed disciplines. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this collaborative spirit is embodied by our network of interdisciplinary research centers and institutes. These pan-campus hubs, central to our $1.55 billion research enterprise, are vibrant engines fueling discovery, fostering collaboration, empowering students, and generating real-world impact on critical societal issues.
Exceptional Return on Investment
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) oversees 14 pan-campus centers and institutes that collectively attracted a staggering $231 million in research funding in Fiscal Year 2024, the second highest award amounts of any unit on campus. Our centers and institutes have benefited from generous investments from the state and provide a 673.9% return on these state investments. This represents a tremendous return on investment, fueling further research and economic development.
The Value of Carolina’s Pan-Campus Research Centers & Institutes
A Catalyst for Inter-Disciplinary Solutions
Our centers and institutes act as crucial convening points for integrated and inter-disciplinary research initiatives. The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) harnesses the collective power of data science, computing, and cyberinfrastructure to address a vast array of challenges, from revolutionizing cancer diagnosis and treatment to addressing coastal community risks.
While not an OVCR unit, the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, supported by multiple Carolina schools and a hospital, is worth highlighting as it is the only public comprehensive cancer center in the state of North Carolina. It unites a wide variety of clinicians and researchers across campus to combat all facets of cancer. It’s this interdisciplinary, synergistic approach that accelerates the translation of discoveries into tangible benefits for patients and communities and ultimately drives progress towards a cancer-free future. Lineberger is one of the leading cancer centers in the nation, with members hailing from more than 40 departments from across the University.
The Carolina Population Center (CPC) also exemplifies the power of convergence, tackling intricate issues that demand diverse perspectives across 18 academic departments. CPC researchers have pioneered data collection and research techniques that emphasize life course approaches, longitudinal surveys, the integration of biological measurement into social surveys, and attention to context and environment. And they continue to be recognized leaders in these fields today. CPC Director Karen Guzzo has been an active contributor to the national conversation around declining birth rates in the U.S., including recent interviews in the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and CBS News.
Engaging with North Carolina and Beyond
The impact of our pan-campus centers and institutes extends far beyond our campus borders. The UNC Institute for the Environment brings faculty, students, and community partners together to meet pressing environmental challenges through air and water research centers, community engagement and sustainability initiatives, and field sites and experiential education programs. Their robust research portfolio has doubled in the last three years, and their work extends from vital coastal resilience programs to Hurricane Helen recovery in Western North Carolina.
The collective expertise organized under the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP) works to prevent chronic disease across North Carolina. HPDP also works on several initiatives focused on decreasing obesity risks in children. The center’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care program is active across childcare centers in 80 N.C. counties to improve toddler health by implementing the best nutrition and physical activity practices.
The Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC) actively translates research into tangible benefits for the state and its citizens. Key impacts include developing the Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) system, crucial for N.C.’s 1997 GDL law that reduced teen crashes. HSRC also drove the passage of seat belt and child passenger safety laws and was key to the “Click It or Ticket” campaign. Their research addresses pedestrian/bicyclist safety, distracted driving, safer roadway design, older driver safety, and data-driven improvements. HSRC collaborates widely, sharing research to enhance transportation safety internationally.
Agility and Impact
One of the remarkable strengths of pan-campus centers and institutes is their efficiency and ability to mobilize rapidly. These components of our enterprise allow the University to respond swiftly to emerging research priorities and funding opportunities, particularly large federal grants that cross multiple campus units under a single mechanism. This flexibility ensures that Carolina remains at the forefront of innovation.
They are also remarkably self-sufficient and specialized, operating like individual research institutes than schools or departments. Almost all of the 14 research centers and institutes housed within the OVCR use a centralized service center model for award and business management, enhancing efficiency, consistency, and strategic decision-making. The service center model allows us to offer high-quality services and specialized staff, which empowers faculty to focus on groundbreaking research and rewarding innovation.
The value proposition extends beyond agility, reach, and economics. Research centers and institutes also:
- Enhance Grant Competitiveness: The interdisciplinary nature of these centers brings the top experts from all parts of campus together to address specific challenges. This focused and interdisciplinary team-based approach gives Carolina a competitive edge in securing large, critical grants.
- Drive Innovation: In bringing together top experts from different disciplines, centers and institutes develop innovative approaches that can serve as models for other units within the University, pushing the boundaries of research methodologies.
- Generate Valuable Data: Solving complex problems contributes significantly to Carolina’s research enterprise by generating large volumes of unique and highly valuable data. Our centralized Research Data Management Core streamlines the stewardship of these valuable data.
- Attract Top Talent: They break down restrictive silos that can prevent faculty from working with others in their own departments and schools. The cutting-edge science and infrastructure within these centers serve as a magnet for recruiting highly sought-after faculty members looking for team science opportunities.
- Maintain Continuity: Freed from the traditional academic calendar and departmental administrative cycles, centers and institutes are able to maintain project continuity and respond more nimbly to sponsor needs.
- Strengthen Partnerships: Because of their focus on specific challenges, these units serve as organizational anchors for critical external public and private partnerships, amplifying the reach and impact of Carolina’s research and engaging top experts from outside the University.
- Seed New Opportunities: Centers and institutes deeply re-invest in research, providing crucial pilot funding and other resources to stimulate the development of new grant proposals.
- Fuel Career Development: By bringing top experts from different disciplines together, they provide invaluable professional growth and skill-building opportunities for faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and staff, while also serving as significant campus employers. The world’s greatest challenges will be solved through collaboration. There is no place better to learn collaboration than with a group of top experts who approach the same grand challenge from different perspectives.
Research centers and institutes at Carolina are not simple, organizational structures. They are vital catalysts for interdisciplinary impact, drivers of economic growth for the state, and crucial engines for addressing the world’s most pressing challenges.
By breaking down silos and fostering a culture of partnership, these centers are instrumental in solidifying UNC-Chapel Hill’s position as a world-class research university that makes profound and positive impacts on North Carolina and beyond.