Provost column: Research is Carolina’s mission
The impact of discoveries made here belongs to everyone.
What does a public research university owe the people it serves? At Carolina, one answer is discovery — the relentless pursuit of knowledge that can improve lives, strengthen communities and expand what is possible.
Carolina’s research mission isn’t separate from its public mission. As the nation’s first public university, Carolina has a longstanding responsibility to use knowledge, talent and resources in service to the people of North Carolina and the world. Research is one of the most powerful ways we fulfill that responsibility.
Yet research depends on funding, and we are currently facing a complex and evolving funding environment, which is affecting virtually every discipline on campus. In response to this uncertainty, we are proud to announce the Carolina Catalyst Fund. Initially seeded through a joint investment from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Provost’s Office, the fund is organized around two opportunities, with funding levels up to $10,000 and up to $75,000, with special consideration given to several topical areas, though applications are welcome from all disciplines and across all topics. Applications are due Oct.15. (Please see the Catalyst Fund webpage for further details.)
The joint investment from our two offices is intentional; it is a signal that these are the ideas that Carolina is betting on. By re-envisioning and restructuring the Creativity Hubs mechanism, the Catalyst Fund backs the early, high-risk, high-reward research and scholarship that Carolina’s strategic priorities demand. In fact, we have made this investment because our research is too consequential and our researchers and scholars are so deserving. Carolina researchers are tackling some of society’s most consequential challenges, and they are inspiring the students who work alongside them. And although the scale and subjects of this work vary widely, the purpose is remarkably consistent. Across Carolina, faculty, staff and students are asking ambitious questions and driving discoveries that change what we know and what we can do in fields ranging from medicine and public health to data science, education and the humanities.
Consider the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, or Add Health. For more than 30 years, Carolina researchers have followed the lives of thousands of Americans, creating one of the most comprehensive resources in the world for understanding how our experiences in adolescence shape health and well-being throughout our lives.
Findings from Add Health continue to inform health science. A recent study found that parent-set bedtimes during adolescence are associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk later in life. Another study reported that persistent infections may contribute to accelerated biological aging through chronic immune activation. These findings illustrate how early-life experiences and biological processes shape long-term health outcomes.
What began as an ambitious effort to understand adolescence has become a global research resource, used by more than 50,000 investigators and thousands of scientific publications — a powerful example of how Carolina researchers are creating knowledge that continues to generate discoveries decades after the original work begins.
Carolina researchers are also addressing one of the most consequential health challenges facing women in North Carolina and beyond: breast cancer. The Carolina Breast Cancer Study is a landmark research project that has helped researchers better understand breast cancer risk and outcomes, directly shaping how clinicians care for women across the state. The study has enrolled thousands of women in North Carolina since the 1990s, capturing cancer risk in the underserved rural population. By combining clinical data, tumor biology, genetics, environmental exposures and social factors, CBCS has become one of the most important resources for understanding breast cancer.
Egerstedt and Gordon-Larsen visit the lab of Wei Zhang, associate professor in the physics and astronomy department. His lab’s work highlights the breadth and impact of the University’s research enterprise. (Megan Mendenhall/UNC Research)
The impact of the CBCS is substantial. The project has opened new frontiers in understanding why some cancers respond to treatment and others do not, moving precision medicine forward at a resolution and scale that was not possible even a decade ago. Findings from the study have been critical in improving early detection, guiding more personalized treatments, and increasing breast cancer survival rates.
As the federal funding landscape continues to evolve, Carolina’s overall research portfolio has remained remarkably resilient despite reductions in some areas. However, for some of our researchers, the changes to federal funding represent both lost funding and reduced opportunities for research impact. To ensure that our research engine keeps humming, we are pursuing additional avenues for supporting and celebrating our researchers, including increased industry and foundation engagement, increased startup support for new faculty hires and different ways of showcasing and highlighting not only our research but our researchers. We have built infrastructure to identify, develop and pursue new sources of funding so that our researchers have a path forward for their most promising ideas.
At the end of the day, the research story is a story about people. People who have dedicated themselves to pushing the frontiers for human knowledge and improving the human condition in our state and across the globe.
In fact, the impact of Carolina research extends well beyond the studios, laboratories or clinics. Across North Carolina, discoveries generated at Carolina are helping create new technologies, launch companies, attract investment and build partnerships. And the research enterprise itself supports thousands of jobs and helps prepare the highly skilled workforce our state needs. UNC Research employs more than 11,400 people in 87 of the state’s counties with an annual payroll of over $478 million.
This is the promise of research at a public university, and the promise Carolina has carried forward since its founding: to use knowledge in service to others. Every discovery, dataset, clinical insight and new technology represents an opportunity to improve lives and strengthen North Carolina. And we remain steadfast in our commitment to our research enterprise.
Provost’s log, stardate Sept. 8, 2026
