2010 OVCRED Annual Report

AnnuAl RepoRt2010

Vice Chancellor Research & Economic

Development

AnnuAl RepoRtVice Chancellor for Research & Economic Development2010

2010 AnnuAl RepoRtVice Chancellor

Research & Economic DevelopmentThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Barbara Entwisle, Interim Vice ChancellorAugust 2010

Editing and design by theOffice of Information and Communications

Cover image: “Aquatic Antenna,” by Daniel Torelli, an undergraduate

in the Department of Chemistry. Torelli used an environmental scanning electron microscope to capture this image of a ladybug antenna. “Aquatic Antenna” was part of the second annual scientific art competition held by the Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory

in the Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience, and Technology.

2010 Annual Report, Office of the Vice Chancellor, Research & Economic Development 4

ContentsOffice of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development...........5

Associate Vice Chancellor for Research........................................................8Office of Federal Affairs.............................................................................10

Offices Supporting Research.....................................................13Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine...................................................14Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science........................15Office of Animal Care and Use..................................................................18Office of Clinical Trials.............................................................................. 20Office of Economic and Business Development.........................................21Office of Human Research Ethics.............................................................. 23Office of Information and Communications..............................................25Office of Research Development................................................................30Office of Research Information Systems.....................................................32Office of Sponsored Research.....................................................................33Office of Technology Development............................................................35

Research Centers and Institutes..............................................36Carolina Population Center....................................................................... 37Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research...................................39Center for Galapagos Studies..................................................................... 41Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention................................43Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters.............................. 45Data Intensive Cyber Environments Center...............................................47Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute...................................49Highway Safety Research Center................................................................51Injury Prevention Research Center.............................................................53Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience, and Technology.................55Institute on Aging......................................................................................58Institute of Marine Sciences.......................................................................61Nutrition Research Institute.......................................................................64Renaissance Computing Institute...............................................................66


Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic DevelopmentBarbara Entwisle, Interim Vice Chancellor

T he overall goals of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development (OVCRED) and its

associated units are to support and promote the research needs of faculty, staff, and students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and to promote the economic-development activities of the university.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearFunding initiatives

During the past year, Carolina contributed cost-sharing funding to a great number of projects. Among these projects were the following:• ChildrenLivinginRuralPoverty• IntegratedResearchActivitiesforDevelopmentalScience—

Child Development Research Collaborative• StatisticalandAppliedMathematicalSciences• GalapagosInitiative• Acquisitionofa600MHzNMRwithCryo-Probe• EnergyFrontierResearchCenter

The funding program, “Support for Scholarship, Creative Activity, or Research in Humanities and Fine Arts,” supported 10 faculty members, whose activities included the following:• FilmingofThe Coal War: Fighting to save a Mountain and its

People• BookprojectYusuf ’s Dilemma: The Middle East and Identity

Politics between the Two World Wars• BookprojectIndependence Lost: The Gulf Coast in the American

Revolution• ProductionofPlaying for Time

The Bridge Funding Program established by OVCRED and the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost has been very successful. Because over 70 percent of Carolina’s research funding comes from federal sources, the creation of a program to bridge investigators whose grants are not renewed but will be resubmitted is critical to maintaining the expertise of research teams that are already in place. This program provides funding only until the next peer review evaluation of the grant. Bridge funding canberequestedastemporarysupportforlapsedgrantsregardlessof funding agency (federal and nonfederal). Central funds will provideup toone-thirdof the requestedbridge fundswith theexpectation that both the department and the school or college will provide similar amounts. The overwhelming majority (more than 70 percent) of the investigators who have received bridge funding have been successful with their grant resubmissions.

International research Support for the Galapagos Project is continuing. This past

year additional plans were made for establishing a permanent

research presence on Isla Isabela. This effort is led by Steve Walsh, with previous extensive involvement by former Associate Vice Chancellor Neil Caudle. In addition, the Renaissance Computing Institute has been working on plans for internet connectivity.

Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize OVCRED administers the Phillip and Ruth Hettleman

Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty. The 2010 recipients are James Bear of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Yuteng Liu of the Department of Statistics and Operations Research, Garegin Papioan of the Department of Chemistry, and Krista Perreira of the Departments of Medicine and Genetics.

Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity OVCRED manages the Carolina Postdoctoral Program

for Faculty Diversity (CPPFD), which develops scholars from underrepresented groups for possible tenure-track appointments at Carolina or other research universities. The CPPFD conducted monthly meetings for networking and supporting the development of postdoctoral scholars within the program. In the spring, CPPFD scholars participated in a retreat that included a seminar on book publishing, participant research presentations, individual consultations on CV and cover letters, and a roundtable conversation on navigating departmental relationships, which was facilitated by former CPPFD postdoctoral scholars who are now Carolina faculty. CPPFD scholars have taught classes within their departments, presented papers at conferences, and presented talks on campus. The program supports 10 postdoctoral scholars. Since 1983, 139 scholars have been served by the program; 116 scholars are now teaching at a university, and 27 of those are faculty at Carolina.

Centers and institutesThe centers and institutes provide unique environments

for research activities in specialized areas ranging from injury prevention to marine sciences. These research units provide considerable support to faculty members and Carolina students,

the Center for Galapagos Studies will address the challenges facing the Galapagos Islands, including population growth, resource conflict, and economic development.


including such services as research funding; assistance in grant preparation and administration; training of faculty members, undergraduates, and graduate students; and service to the public. The centers and institutes are very proficient in leveraging outside support from the funds provided by the university. Last year, the 11 centers and institutes reporting to OVCRED had combined state support of $6,459,457, and brought in $131,764,552 in external grants and contracts, a leveraging of approximately $20.40 of research funding for each $1 of state support. (CPC

had a leveraging of approximately $104 of research funds for each $1 of state support.) The centers and institutes associated with OVCRED received more external funding last year than any school or college except for the School of Medicine.

Efforts to gain efficiencyIn an effort to gain efficiency, OVCRED established a Unified

Business Cluster (UBC) to manage the finance and human resource operations for the 12 administrative offices reporting to the vice chancellor. David Culp was hired as manager of the UBC and a human resource consultant will join the UBC staff in August.

External activitiesLast year, Vice Chancellor Tony Waldrop served on the boards

for the Kenan Institute, KIAsia, the Research Triangle Institute, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, the Foundation for a Sustainable Community, NCIdea, the Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Studies Inc., Americans for Medical Progress, and the David H. Murdock Research Institute. He also chaired the South Carolina Commission of Higher Education panel to select Research Centers of Economic Excellence. Numerous presentations were made, including at the meetings of the National Council of University Research Administrators and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.

Promotions and retirementsAfter 31 years of service to the State of North Carolina, Neil

Caudle, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and director of the Office of Information and Communications (OIC) retired on April 30, 2010. Caudle was director of OIC for 15 years.

Karen Regan was promoted to Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. In this new role Regan oversees OIC and the Office of Federal Affairs.

Tony Waldrop accepted the position of Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Central Florida effective July 31, 2010. Waldrop had served as Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development at Carolina since 2001. Under his leadership, Carolina’s research enterprise grew from $438.7 million to over $803 million. Barbara Entwisle, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology, has been named Interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development.

Winners of the 2010 phillip and Ruth Hettleman prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty, clockwise from top right: James Bear, Krista perreira, Garegin papioan, and Yuteng liu.


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Associate Vice Chancellor for ResearchRobert Lowman, Associate Vice Chancellor

T he mission of the Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research (AVC) is to provide leadership to the university

in (1) research policy, planning, and infrastructure; (2) research training; and (3) regulatory compliance. In addition, the office conducts several grant and research-recognition programs that facilitate the conduct of research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearThe AVC completed planning (with representatives from

Research Compliance, Conflict of Interest, the Graduate School, and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs) for training in the responsible conduct of research. The plan was approved in December2009andisdesignedtomeettherequirementsofboththe National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation.

Extensive work in nonfiscal research compliance continued to occupy a major portion of the AVC’s time. This included (1) serving on a standing search committee for the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine (DLAM) that screened candidates for all supervisory level positions during the year; (2) cochairing the search committee (with Joe Kornegay) for a new director of DLAM; and (3) serving on the DLAM advisory committee. Other areas of service included the following: • Representing the Vice Chancellor for Research and

Economic Development (VCRED) at semiannual program reviews conducted by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

• Servingasofficialuniversitycontact forAssociation for theAssessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International, the laboratory animal program accrediting agency.

• Continuing to serve as Research Integrity Officer forthe university, submitting an annual report to the Office of Research Integrity, dealing with several allegations of misconduct, and referring two allegations to other universities for investigation.

• Advising several department heads and center directorsregarding potential ethics charges, authorship disputes, or other conflicts involving professional behavior.

• ProvidingstaffsupporttotheuniversityEmbryonicStemCellResearch Oversight committee, chaired by Terry Magnuson.

• ServingontheUniversityExportControlCommittee.• Attendinganational,invitation-onlyconferenceonbiosafety

sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and involving university personnel and federal scientific and security programs and agencies.

• Continuing to represent the VCRED on the InstitutionalBiosafety Committee. The AVC continued as advisor to the VCRED and liaison to

the Nutrition Research Institute on the North Carolina Research

Campus in Kannapolis. This included negotiating an agreement to house Carolina laboratory animals at the David H. Murdock Research Institute Core facility; facilitating cooperation between North Carolina A&T University and Environment, Health and Safety at Carolina on the design and construction of a proposed BSL-3 facility in the nutrition building at Kannapolis; and instituting a policy allowing the Nutrition Research Institute to make its own decisions regarding operations during adverse weather.

The AVC continued to serve as ad hoc project manager for completion and opening of the vivarium in the Genetic Medicine Building, the largest vivarium ever constructed in the state of North Carolina. Construction was approximately two years behind schedule, and the lack of cooperation among various offices delayed completion. The AVC coordinated the efforts of all on-campus offices, communicated regularly with the architectural firm, and wrote and distributed an electronic newsletter to stakeholders to keep them apprised of progress. The upper floor ofthefacilityopenedinJanuary2010.Thelowerfloor—delayedby the need to modify the facility to meet the needs of individual investigators—shouldopeninafewmonths.

The AVC accepted a major assignment from the Chancellor in February 2010 to complete a large-animal research facility in the Bingham Township of western Orange County. The facility had been cited twice by the State Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for illegal discharges of treated wastewater. Nearby property owners were organized in opposition to the facility, and media attention was negative and becoming more widespread. In June, Carolina received an NIH Recovery Act grant (previously submitted) of $14.5 million. At the end of fiscal year 2010, the project was on target to meet grant requirements,butearlyinfiscalyear2011,theuniversitydecidedto relinquish theNIH grant andmove in a different directionon the Bingham Facility. In spite of that change, the project was moving forward under the direction of the AVC at the end of fiscal year 2010. The university had hired a water consultant, and preliminary reports suggested it was possible to handle anticipated levels of wastewater at full site build out. Budget projections were still imperfect, but precision was improving regularly, and the project was expected to cost about $50 million. Relations with DENR, Orange County, and the Army Corps of Engineers were all improving. It seemed unlikely there would be future notices of violation. Relations with neighbors were also improving, and media coverage sincemid-Februarywas—on balance—fair andlargely accurate. All university offices involved in the project were pulling together and cooperating extremely well, and there appeared to be no insurmountable impediments likely to derail planning and construction. Although major decisions still needed to be made, the project appeared to be stable and moving forward at the end of the fiscal year.

As in past years, the AVC presented two half-day workshops titled Twelve Keys to Successful Grant Writing to teach grant-writing skills to faculty members and postdoctoral fellows during the spring semester. About 200 individuals attended the two workshops.

The AVC oversaw several seed grant and award competitions, including those of the University Research Council, special awards in the arts and humanities, and selection of the Hettleman Awards


for outstanding younger faculty members. In this latter capacity, the AVC presided at Hettleman Award addresses for winners from the previous year.

In university service, the AVC continued as a member of the advisory council of the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) and accepted an invitation to serve another three-year term on the council. He also served as a member of a reconstituted search committee for a new research coordinator position at CFE. The AVC also represented the Chancellor at the Universities Research Association, and represented the university at one meeting of the Sponsored Programs and Research Council at General Administration.

The AVC continued his service as Executive Secretary of the Alpha of North Carolina Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, conducting two initiations of new members. The chapter hosted the national Phi Beta Kappa Romanell Professor in Philosophy, UNC’s Susan Wolf. Wolf gave three lectures on campus in February on the philosophy of love. One lecture was followed by a chapter dinner. The AVC also attended the triennial Phi Beta Kappa Council meeting in Austin, Texas. The council is the governing body of the society.

The AVC was elected to a three-year term on the board of directors and the executive committee of the North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research. In addition, he continued to serve as an at-large member of the board of directors of the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA), and continued his service on the editorial advisory board of the NCURA journal Research Management Review.

During the year, the AVC presented the following programs at national meetings:

• Lowman,R.P.,Pogatshnik,J.,&Ellis,L.(2009,October).Proposal Development for Research Administrators. Workshop presented at the annual meeting of NCURA, Washington, D.C.

• Pogatshnik,J.&Lowman,R.P.(2009,October).Proposalpreparation basics. Concurrent session presented at the annual meeting of NCURA, Washington, D.C.

• Lowman, R. P. (2009, October). Leveraging grant oppor-tunities through collaboration: May I tag along? Discussion leader at the annual meeting of NCURA, Washington, D. C.

• Lowman,R.P.,Garton,J.,Caldwell,J.&DeMarse,S.(2010,June) Non-fiscal compliance. Live television panel discussion presented via satellite as part of the annual NCURA TV professional education series. Also available on DVD.

Goals for the Coming Academic Year• Keep the Bingham Facility on solid footing and make

substantial progress toward sustainable build out.• ServeasasenioradvisortotheInterimViceChancellorfor

Research and Economic Development in making a smooth transition into the position.

• CompletethesearchforanewDLAMdirector.• Offermoreandawidervarietyofgrant-writingworkshops

for Carolina faculty members and postdocs.• Continuetoprovideoversightandadviceinvariousareasof

compliance, including stem cells, laboratory animals, research integrity, export controls, biological safety, and human subjects.

• Increase seed funding for faculty intramural researchsupport.


Office of Federal AffairsKaren Regan, Director

On behalf of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Carolina’s School of Medicine, the Office of Federal

Affairs (OFA) coordinates relationships with Congress and the administration and strengthens the university’s influence in the federal policymaking process. The office also assists faculty and campus leaders in identifying and securing federal research support; acts as liaison between the university and the North Carolina congressional delegation and other federal officials; and works with colleagues—both on campus and throughoutthehighereducationcommunity—toadvocateonbehalfof theresearch enterprise and higher education.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearAdvancing Funding Opportunities for Campus Research Priorities

OFA works with faculty and senior administrators on a variety of federal funding issues. Key among these is the university’s annual “Federal Initiatives” effort to secure congressional support for a limited number of projects not eligible for competitive federal funding. Each fall the provost issues a call for proposals to vice chancellors, deans, directors, and department chairs. Faculty members submit their proposals to the appropriate division head, who then rank orders and transmits the top priorities to OFA. In consultation with the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, the chancellor, and the provost, a handful of proposals are selected for inclusion in the university’s congressional funding agenda, which OFA then shepherds through the federal appropriations process.

In the federal government’s 2010 fiscal year, approximately $6.3 million in new funding was secured for the following initiatives:• North Carolina Bio-Preparedness Collaborative (NCB-

Prepared). In partnership with North Carolina State University, SAS, and state and federal agencies, the NCB-Prepared initiative will put North Carolina at the forefront of bio-preparedness—in terms of both surveillance andresponse. First-year funding of $5 million was included in the FY10 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill, and the initial focus will be on cataloging existing surveillance activities to identify gaps in data and avoid redundancies within a comprehensive statewide bio-surveillance system; the system will be interoperable and readily accessible to a variety of end-users. Federal support will help NCB-Prepared to integrate data and transcend existing silos to create a faster system with better decision support for emergency-response organizations and public health.

• UNC Solar Energy Research Center. One million dollars from the FY10 Energy and Water Appropriations bill will be used to purchase instrumentation for the UNC Solar Energy Research Center, an interdisciplinary research center that develops solar fuels and next-generation photovoltaic technology. This new congressional funding leverages the $17.5 million Energy Frontier Research Center grant awarded to the center in 2009.

• Program in Racial Disparities and Cardiovascular Disease. This collaborative initiative between UNC-Chapel Hill and East Carolina University addresses the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States—cardiovascular disease—which falls disproportionately onminority populations. Using $300,000 in funding from the FY10 Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill, UNC physicians and scientists will develop state-of-the-art computer and database platforms; computer applications; and networks of physicians, scientists, and patients, allowing investigators to identify both the causes of illness and the effectiveness of alternate interventions in treating cardiovascular disease. As this year’s annual report goes to press, Congress has yet

to complete work. In the House, the FY11 Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill includes $500,000 for the Kidney Care Prevention Program; the Energy and Water Appropriations bill includes $950,000 for the HPC Infrastructure for Modeling Solar Devices; the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill contains $4.75 million in continued funding for NCB-Prepared; and the Defense Appropriations bill includes $3.7 million for the Center for Experiential Technologies for Urban Warfare and Disaster Response. The Senate version of the Energy and Water Appropriations bill includes $700,000 for HPC Infrastructure for Modeling Solar Devices. The Senate has yet to consider its Defense Appropriations measure.

Congressman David price spoke at the launch of nCB-prepared in the School of public Health.


Increasing Carolina’s visibility and influence in the CapitolOFA works with faculty and campus leaders to ensure their

expertise informs national policy discussions and debate on issues of concern to the higher education and academic research communities. To accomplish this objective, OFA undertakes the following:• Nominates faculty to serve on federal advisory boards and

committees. Federal advisory committees play a significant role in shaping public policy by advising federal agencies, Congress, and the president on a wide array of scientific and technical concerns. OFA manages the university’s federal advisory committee nomination process, from tracking solicitations for nominations in the Federal Register to preparing and submitting formal nominations of Carolina faculty and senior administrators. Additionally, the office continues to maintain a comprehensive, web-accessible database of federal advisory committees that identifies Carolina faculty currently serving on those panels and boards (http://cfx3.research.unc.edu/facr/).

• Works with faculty and administrators on congressional testimony, responses to formal congressional inquiries, and technical briefings. The office works with campus experts to prepare them to testify before congressional committees or to brief decision-makers on particular scientific or technical matters. When faculty members appear before Congress, OFA works with them to formulate and edit testimony, draft white papers, and develop presentations. OFA regularly advises and works with different units to draft effective responses to formalcongressionalinquiriesonavarietyofsubjects.Finally,OFA often works with faculty members to prepare for and promote congressional briefings.

• Works in coalition with professional associations and sister institutions on broad policy concerns. OFA works with association leaders and colleagues from peer institutions to address legislative and regulatory matters of concern to the broader community by serving on the Executive Committee of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Council on Governmental Affairs, and by cochairing issue task forces,

participating in educational briefings for congressional staff, making targeted visits to Capitol Hill or federal agencies to advocate key policy positions, and by engaging Carolina faculty in broad advocacy efforts on national priorities. Continuing our annual work with the National Humanities Alliance, OFA once again enlisted Bill Andrews, Senior Associate Dean for Fine Arts and Humanities and Professor of English, in Humanities Advocacy Day. Joined by representatives from UNC General Administration, East Carolina University, and UNC Greensboro, Andrews met with members and staff of the North Carolina congressional delegation to advocate for increased funding at the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additionally, OFA participates in a coalition to restore funding for the National Children’s Study (NCS), a prospective, longitudinal investigation of the environmental influences on children’s health and development. In 2005, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development selected Carolina and six other institutions to serve as “Vanguard Sites” to pilot the first phase of the NCS. OFA has worked with peers nationwide to secure full funding for the NCS in the past four Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bills and is working on similar efforts for FY11.

• Develops and advocates the university’s positions on key policy concerns. In conjunction with other UNC administrative offices and campus leaders,OFA frequentlydevelops recommendations on various legislative and regulatory proposals and conveys the university’s positions directly to officials in Washington, D.C. Over the past year, OFA has advocated for increased funding for key student aid programs as well as for research funding at the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among others. OFA also worked on a number of legislative proposals to advance U.S. economic competitiveness and scientific innovation, including the reauthorization of the COMPETES Act, health-care reform, measures to overhaul the U.S. patent system, tax code provisions affecting higher education and charitable giving, and workforce development for health professionals, among many others.

Enhancing connections to legislators and key elected officialsAs the university’s primary representative in Washington,

OFA coordinates and strengthens relationships with members of Congress and their staffs, particularly among the N.C. congressional delegation, and with other elected and appointed government officials. To nurture the university’s relationships with key federal legislative and executive branch officials, the office recently accomplished the following:• Convened the fifth congressional staff delegation visit

(STAFFDEL) to North Carolina. Eight senior congressional staff members from the U.S. House and Senate Armed Services Committee and North Carolina’s congressional delegation joined key faculty members here on campus for briefings on federal research and development funding, focusing on basic research and Department of Defense programming.

• Coordinated numerous individual congressional staff visitsto campus and faculty briefings for staff here in Chapel

Melody Barnes, director of the Domestic policy Council for the obama Administration and a Carolina alumnus, met with members of the Carolina College Advising Corps in Washington, D.C., in July 2010.


through an expanded effort of outreach and ongoing dialogues on policy matters.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearOFA will continue to seek opportunities to maximize federal

research support from agencies that, to date, have not provided major funding to the university. Prime among these targets are the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Agriculture.

OFA will work closely with faculty and federal relations counterparts to identify major interdisciplinary and inter-institutional areas for federally supported collaboration. One of OFA’s goals continues to be to further the culture of collaboration within the university, and between this institution and outside parties, by promoting new partnerships for research.

In the coming year, OFA will strengthen its involvement with Carolina’s health affairs schools, especially the School of Medicine.

Hill. Congressional staff from both North Carolina Senate and several House offices visited campus, where they toured university lab facilities and met with faculty to discuss researchers’ areas of scientific expertise.

• Hosted the sixth annual Carolina holiday reception inWashington, D.C., for the members and staff of the N.C. congressional delegation and for Carolina alumni working on Capitol Hill and across the federal government.

• Coordinatedmeetingswithkeyadministrationofficialsandmembers of Congress for Chancellor Thorp in Washington, D.C., including Melody Barnes, Chief Domestic Policy Adviser for President Obama; Sonal Shah, Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation; senior administrators at the U.S. Department of Education; and members of the N.C. congressional delegation.

• Reinforced relationships with senior congressional staff

offices Supporting Research

Marine mycologists Jan and Brigitte Kohlmeyer of the Institute of Marine Sciences described over 160 new species and 50 genera of marine fungi over the past 40 years. Brigitte Kohlmeyer made this an many other detailed drawings of marine fungi spores

using a microscope and a drawing tube.

After extensive cleaning and preparation, the facility began housing animals in January 2010. Before the official opening, DLAM held two Genetic Medicine Building open houses to give people an opportunity to see this long-awaited, large, state-of-the-art automated facility. One open house was for the research community and the other for DLAM staff and family.

Veterinary FacultyOur five veterinary faculty accomplished the following

scholarly activities:• Classes: Team-taught graduate courses in Pathology 714L

and 716L• Grants:Coinvestigatorsonsixextramurallyfundedgrants• Publications:Ninerefereedarticles• Presentations:12

Goals for the Coming Academic Year• RecruitapermanentdirectorofDLAM.• Continuetoprovidequalityanimalcareincompliancewith

all federal, state, and local laws and guidelines. • Continue to improve working conditions and husbandrystaffsalariestoretainmorequalifiedpersonnel.

• Improveemployeeretention.• ContinuetrainingDLAMstaffandprincipalinvestigators.• Maximizetheuseofexistinganimalspaceandpursueoptions

for additional space.• OpenthenewfacilitiesattheBinghamFacility.• Implement the new research animal management system

(RAMS) developed in conjunction with the Office of Research Information Systems. Once operational, this system will provide state-of-the-art inventory management, animal ordering, and a fully automated wireless veterinary medical recordkeeping system.

Division of Laboratory Animal MedicineDwight Bellinger, Interim Director

T he Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine (DLAM) is responsible for the care of all vertebrate animals on the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus. DLAM is committed to programs of excellence in veterinary care and laboratory animal management practices for all species used in Carolina research endeavors.

A staff of 138 professional, technical, and administrative personnel provides quality animal care to a daily populationofover 75,000 animals in 17 animal facilities on and off campus. Animal research on the Carolina campus is conducted by the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Public Health, and Pharmacy, and by the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, and Psychology. DLAM reports to the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development.

DLAM’s program is reviewed semiannually by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and has been accredited by the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC) since 1973. DLAM and the university also meet U.S. Department of Agriculture and Public Health Service standards and regulations. A major responsibility of DLAM’s five veterinarians, eight veterinary technicians, and three laboratory technicians is the health care and humane use of all animals. As laboratory animal specialists, they provide a comprehensive program of veterinary care, offer technical advice and assistance, and provide laboratory and pathology services for diagnostic and research purposes.

Major Accomplishments During the Past Year Staff Development

Formal training for the supervisory staff continues in the form of formal sessions led by internal and external instructors. All DLAM supervisors are participating in the DLAM Leadership Initiative program and have helped with the development of the DLAM Sourcebook. Initial training for all management staff should be complete by October 2010. The Leadership Initiative will bring a consistent plan, resources, and support to the overall DLAM mission of animal care and customer service.

The emphasis on American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) certification has resulted in an additional four staff completing certification examinations for Assistant Laboratory Animal Technician (ALAT), one for Laboratory Animal Technician (LAT), and one for the Certified Manager Animal Resources (CMAR) certification.

FacilitiesThe Bingham Facility has a third building under construction

with an estimated completion by the end of 2010.


DlAM held two Genetic Medicine Building open houses to give people an opportunity to see this long–awaited, state-of-the-art automated facility.


Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social ScienceKaren Regan, Interim Director

F ounded in 1924, the Howard W. Odum Institute for Research in Social Science is the nation’s oldest multidisciplinary social

science university institute. Indeed, the Odum Institute is the oldest institute or center of any description at the nation’s first public university, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Odum Institute’s mission parallels that of the university as a whole—teaching,research,andservice—buttheinstitute’sfocusis on the social sciences.

The Odum Institute is not part of any one school or department. It stretches across the entire university community and beyond, influencing students, faculty, and staff from programs in public health, social work, business, and government, as well as in the arts and sciences. People come from all corners of the university to take advantage of the institute’s training and courses, consulting services, data, software, and facilities.

The Odum Institute houses one of the nation’s largest social science and census data archives, and maintains state-of-the-art GIS and computing labs and a telephone-survey call room. The institute offers short courses and seminars, as well as advanced statistical software and consulting support for social science and survey-research design and analysis. The institute sponsors 17 ongoing faculty work groups. Its services are available to social science faculty and graduate students, undergraduate students and faculty mentors, academic departments, Carolina centers and institutes, university staff and administrators, research groups and partners, government officials, and the public.

Theinstituteisstaffedbyexpertsinquantitativeandqualitativeresearch methods, statistics, survey research, spatial analysis, and social science and census data archives. Its short-course faculty draw from leading experts throughout the social science research community. The Odum Institute is home to Carolina’s graduate Certificate Program in Survey Methodology.

Major Accomplishments During the Past Year NSF SBE Alliance training for underrepresented minorities

The Odum Institute continued its successful collaboration with the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Atlantic Coast Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences Alliance during 2009-2010. For the past several years, the Odum Institute has taught a summer workshop designed to prepare incoming minority studentsinquantitativetraining.InJulyandAugustof2010,theinstitute taught its fifth set of summer workshops through NSF’s Atlantic Coast SBE Sciences Alliance.

Instructors at the Odum Institute taught two sessions of the introductory-level workshop, which is designed to prepare incomingminoritystudentsinquantitativetraining.Theadvancedworkshop, which was taught once this year, is designed to help thepreviousyear’salumni staycurrent in the latestquantitativemethodologies.

Successful seed-grant competitionWith partial support from the Latane Fund granted by

the College of Arts and Sciences, the Odum Institute held a competition for seed-grant funds to support multidisciplinary research. Although our intention was to award one or two seed grants,theproposalqualitywassohighthatwedecidedtofundfour seed-grant proposals.

Certificate Program in Survey Methodology (CPSM)CPSM completed its sixth full year of operation during the

2009-2010 academic year. There are 77 students now enrolled in the program and, since its inception, 23 participants have earned certificates. Participants come from a variety of departments from within the university and from RTI International, as well as from the broader Triangle research and survey community.

CPSM is a joint venture in many ways. The Odum Institute joins with the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland (UMD) to offer video-linked courses simultaneously at Carolina and UMD. The Odum Institute provides one instructor in Chapel Hill, and UMD provides the other instructor. Students are in classrooms at both sites.

Spatial analysis supportThe institute continued to offer its Geographic Information

System (GIS) short course series, designed to give Carolina social scientists a broad range of GIS skills and tools. Many courses were offered as hands-on labs that gave researchers immediate experience with GIS software and hardware. This year was the sixth year of operation for the institute’s GIS lab. Institute staff membersarecontinuingtodevelopexpertiseinGIStechniques,software, and spatial analysis. Courses included exploratory data analysis, GeoDa, introduction to spatial regression, and geographically weighted regression. Interest in spatial analysis at Carolina continues to grow; to meet these demands the institute is now offering a weekly course on Bayes for beginners.

Citizen-Soldier Support Program (CSSP)CSSP is a national demonstration program led by Carolina.

Since 2005 the program has worked to mobilize statewide support for military families from a wide variety of community organizations and systems. Citizen soldiers have constituted some 40percentofthetotalU.S.militarypersonnelservinginIraqandAfghanistan. In 2008, CSSP began creating a network of trained mental health care providers throughout North Carolina. To date, more than 2,000 providers have been trained to treat the behavioralhealthneedsofreturningveteransofthewarsinIraqand Afghanistan. This training focused on post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Online versions of these courses have also been developed. Carolina partners include the N.C. Area Health Education Centers, the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, and the UNC Health Sciences Library.

CSSP continued to host training institutes on building community partnerships as part of the U.S. Army Integrated Family Support Network (now Army OneSource). The training is designed to give Army family specialists in North Carolina and the rest of the country skills in building community partnerships that support the families of deployed soldiers.


Library of Congress preservation programThe year 2010 will mark the end of Odum’s six-year

participation in the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program. As a result of the project the Odum Institute has been named one of the founding partners of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance, and we are now positioned to assist in social science digital preservation and significantly influence its future. The Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS) partnership has grown throughout this project. During the past year new members from across the country and the world have been invited (via the invitation to the Australian National Social Science Archive) to join this group. Because of the Odum Institute and its partners, the preservation project has rescued many hundreds of valuable social science datasets and is on track to support the nation’s social science data needs for many years to come.

Institute for Museums and Library Services ProjectIn its continuing efforts to lead the field in digital

preservation, the Odum archive is participating in an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant to develop a distributed storage audit technology that will allow archives, libraries, and museums to manage and audit the digital resources they value. Odum information technology and archive staff are leading the development of these tools. Once complete, these tools will have the potential for international distribution and will significantly help institutions manage scholarly works of many forms.

Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) Center collaborations The Odum Institute’s participation in the Transcontinental

Persistent Archive Prototype has developed preservation rules based on the iRODS technology. The integration of this GRID-based storage environment with the Odum Dataverse Network has provided another preservation innovation. As a result of this

effort the institute has been a significant part of the UNC DataNet proposal led by the DICE Center group. If funded, this proposal will integrate many disciplines using iRODS and provide a cross-discipline data search tool based on the Odum Institute Dataverse Network technology.

Data archiveThe 2009-10 academic year was a demanding one for the

institute’s data archive. Archive staff members continued to collect studies for the Data-PASS project, including Harris Interactive polls and new state polls through the National Network of State Polls. In addition to the significant grant activities listed above, the archive staff have maintained and modified the open source Dataverse Network tool used to manage the social science content at Odum and shared these customizations with the tools creators at Harvard University.

From July 2009 to June 2010, users downloaded over 10,000 files from the institute’s website. The archive recorded 21,180 visitsfrom14,180uniquevisitors.Researchersconducted1,210online analyses of data in the Dataverse Network.

Through the institute’s licenses and partnerships, campus users also downloaded 11,646 files from the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), and users conducted 1,487 searches and downloaded 710 documentation files from the Roper Center at the University of Connecticut.

Qualitative analysis short course seriesInthelast15years,qualitative-andmixed-methodsresearch

have become more valued in the social and behavioral sciences. Carolina researchers who use qualitative and mixed methodscome from many disciplines, including anthropology, city and regional planning, communication studies, history, leisure studies, nursing, political science, public health, sociology, social psychology, human and social geography, journalism and mass

pictured are odum instructor Cathy Zimmer and students Kirk Adair, theresa de los Santos, Angela Dobbins, Amanda elBassiouny, San Juanita Garcia, Matthew Gichohi, lauren Gilbert, Adrianne Gilbert, Christopher Hill, nina Johnson, Kelesha nevers, Jason okonofua, Sofia peralta, William Rosales, Danielle tolson, petta-Gay Ybarra.


communication, and economic and social education. In 2009-10,theinstituteofferedaspecialshortcourseseriesinqualitativeanalysis, includingteamworkinqualitativeresearch,conductingfocus groups, building a codebook, mixed methods research, qualitativeresearchdesign,groundedtheory,andcommunicatingqualitative findings to special audiences. Instructors for thesecourses included nationally known experts such as John Creswell and Margaret Kearney. Institute short courses in qualitativemethodsandsoftwareforqualitativeanalysis,suchasATLAS.ti,MAXQDA, and QSR NVivo, continue to draw many researchers andstudents.Theinstitute’squalitativeanalysisconsultantprovidesongoing assistance to researchers using specialized qualitativeanalysis software.

Short coursesIn 2009-10, 2,400 people attended short courses offered by

theOdum Institute—the fourth year in a row that attendanceexceeded 2,000. Because many of these participants attended several courses, a more accurate reflection of attendance is 3,600 seat-hours. The institute annually offers 60 to 70 short courses in GIS/spatialanalysis,proposalwriting,qualitativeandquantitativeanalysis, statistical computing, statistical data, and survey research. Last year, many attendees came from Health Affairs, primarily from the School of Public Health, but also from the Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, and Pharmacy. Other attendees came from the Schools of Business, Education, Information and Library Science, Journalism and Mass Communication, and Social Work; the Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, and Political Science; the Carolina Population Center, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, and the Sheps Center.

Odum Institute/ICPSR joint summer workshopsThe Odum Institute is the first institute of its kind to

offer ICPSR workshops in quantitative methods outside ofICPSR’s base in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The institute continued its collaboration this year and offered three workshops available to North Carolinian participants as well as participants from around the country. These workshops included courses on spatial regression analysis, latent trajectory/growth curve analysis, and social network analysis. This workshop program makes state-of-the-art training in quantitative methods more accessible tostudents, staff, and faculty at Carolina.

Statistical and survey consultantsStatistical analysis is probably the most unifying approach in

the social sciences, and generations of researchers have associated the Odum Institute with statistical computing. The institute recorded anaverageof210weeklylog-ins(from1,947uniqueuserswith10,903 log-ins annually) in its state-of-the-art computing labs. Most of these users use our wide range of statistical software. The statistical consulting group is staffed by two quantitative socialscientists, an expert on spatial regression and analysis, and four to six graduate students who offer instruction, consultation, and problem-solving on statistical issues. The institute also has two staff members who provide survey consulting for Carolina faculty, students, and staff. Faculty and students continued to heavily use the institute’s Qualtrics Web survey software. As of April 2010 Qualtrics users totaled 1,049 in the Carolina community.

Interdisciplinary faculty working groupsCarolina faculty members participated in 17 Odum Institute

faculty working groups: African Diaspora Study, Applied Statistics, Early Mediterranean Societies, Economic Development, Genes and Social Sciences, Geographic Information Systems, Global History, Health Care Communication, the Internet and Social Science, Living Wage, Political Economy, Qualitative Research, Religion and American Culture, Scholarly Communication, Social Movements, Social Theory and Cross Cultural Studies, South-East Asian Studies, and Southern Studies. Six working groups were particularly active in 2009-10. The institute provided each group with up to $1,000 to sponsor outside speakers and defray other expenses.

Distance learningThe institute continued to host semester-long shared courses

with the University of Maryland as a part of CPSM through its distance education studio in Manning Hall. The studio was also used for video conferencing and meetings. Staff training for operating and troubleshooting the new technology was a major priority. When the room is not being used as a distance education studio, it continues to function as a classroom for short courses and a conference room for meetings.

Goals for the Coming Academic Year

Despite budget reductions, the 2009-10 academic year was a time of innovation for the institute. Much of our emphasis for the coming year will be on maintaining those efforts despite a permanent reduction in funding of over $110,000. The institute will also move ahead in several areas, including the following:•Continuetoexpandourroleinsideandoutsidetheuniversity

as a leader in digital data archives and storage and retrieval technology. Work with international leaders to shape the future of data collaboration and sharing around the world. Work with countries in the European Union and others to develop sharable technologies that enable our researchers to examine the international socialization of our environment.

•Explorenewsourcesoffundingtosupportinstituteinitiatives,including the CPSM and the digital social science archive.

•ContinuetostrengthenandpromotespatialanalysisandGISdata mapping as new tools for Carolina social scientists. We will build on the institute’s new spatial-analysis program for Carolina’s social science research community. We will strengthen our relationship with the Triangle Census Data Research Center and campus units to expand the use of spatial analysis and census data in policymaking and program development.

• Strengthen our consulting services in the areas of mixed-methods research design, support, and analysis.

• Support CSSP as it replicates North Carolina’s experiencein other states. The institute has a key leadership role in the program and is committed to realizing CSSP’s enormous national potential in behavioral health and community engagement in support of Reserve Component service members and their families.

•Workwithdepartmentsacrosscampustomeettheirneedsindeveloping and piloting surveys (for example, working with the Department of Social Medicine to develop and pilot a survey of biobanks in the U.S.).


Office of Animal Careand UseTracy Heenan, Director

The mission of the Office of Animal Care and Use (OACU) is to enforce federal animal-use policy in a manner that

promotes excellence in research and preserves federal, state, and local support of the university’s research enterprise.

OACU coordinates all activities of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. IACUC ensures that researchers using live vertebrate animals in research and education at the university adhere to all applicable regulations, including the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, the Animal Welfare Act, the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and UNC-Chapel Hill policies. IACUC strivestoservetheneedsofresearcherswhilealsorequiringstrictadherence to regulations governing the humane treatment of laboratory animals.

IACUC, which represents the entire institution, is appointed by the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, who also serves as the university’s institutional official (IO). The IO can legally commit the institution to comply with animal welfare law. IACUC reports to the IO and is the agent responsible for ensuring compliance with policies and regulations governing the use of live vertebrate animals in research and education.

IACUC must include a nonscientist member, a scientist, an attending veterinarian, and a representative from the community who has no association with the university. IACUC has the following responsibilities:• Reviewandapproveresearchandteachingprotocolsinvolving

the use of live vertebrate animals.• Review and approve the institutional program for the care

and welfare of live vertebrate animals used in research and educational programs.

• Inspectandevaluatethefacilitiesinwhichanimalsarehousedand maintained.All faculty members who conduct research or educational

programsusinglivevertebrateanimalsarerequiredtosubmitanAnimal Care Application (ACAP) to IACUC for consideration. The review of the application is one of the methods IACUC uses to oversee the use of animals by university personnel. The information requestedintheapplicationisdictatedbyfederal,state,local,andinstitutionalpoliciesandregulations.Therequestedinformationis essential for IACUC to evaluate and determine whether the committee should approve the proposal. An approved application is requiredbefore any researchor educationalprojectusing livevertebrate animals commences.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearOnline application

OACU further developed the web-based ACAP forms, which we first began to offer on June 1, 2005. All active applications are submitted electronically, eliminating the need for paper copies. ACAP provides Carolina’s animal users with an excellent web-

based form that has been licensed to a number of other institutions. Providing the research community with an online application is proactive, helps to ensure compliance with regulations, benefits researchers, and lays the groundwork for increasing OACU efficiency. The application system is fully implemented and includes electronic processing of applications.

Animal Welfare Assurance Submitted annual Animal Welfare Assurance report for

the federal regulatory agency, the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare.

Maintained AAALAC International accreditationOACU will proceed with plans and projects that support

UNC’s goal of maintaining full Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) accreditation. Carolina will undergo an AAALAC site visit in the summer of 2011.

Compliance OACU continued to improve the laboratory-animal

coordinator training and certification program and continued to develop the IACUC training program and uniform training of laboratory personnel by certified laboratory coordinators. The office offers established wet labs as well as one-on-one, hands-on training of research personnel every Monday.

OACU continued to provide a mouse-breeding-colony management course for researchers at Carolina. The office also provides mandatory training for mouse breeders in the Cage Density Policy for Breeding Mice.

OACU coordinated all aspects of IACUC semiannual animal-facility inspection (spring 2010 and fall 2010). Renovations and new construction are ongoing at an offsite animal-housing facility operated by the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine (DLAM).

Training and Compliance conducts an expanded prereview

oACu coordinates the Institutional Animal Care and use Committee, which ensures all Carolina researchers who use live vertebrate animals adhere to federal regulations and university policies.


of each application, assessing personnel training qualifications.Training and Compliance and OACU administration assist investigators with completion of their animal-use applications and helps investigators resolve outstanding application comments.IACUC primary and alternate membership

OACU continued to coordinate the alternate IACUC membership system with a full roster of primary and alternate IACUC members. This is an ongoing task as members resign from IACUC. At present, IACUC has a full complement of 11 primary members and 18 alternate members.

Information technologyOACU worked with IT personnel to improve ACAP and

other OACU projects. The office also maintained and updated the IACUC and Network of Laboratory Animal Coordinators (NLAC) websites on the Research at Carolina site.

Interagency coordination The director of OACU is the founding member and serves

on the NLAC steering committee. The NLAC program enhances communication between animal researchers, IACUC, and DLAM. NLAC activities support Carolina’s mission to expand knowledge and assist animal researchers by providing a forum for open exchange of ideas, procedures, and regulations. NLAC quarterly seminars cover a diverse range of topics and haverobust attendance. The NLAC listserv allows exchange of useful information. OACU staff maintain the NLAC listserv and website and provide meeting announcements and reminders.

OACU coordinated monthly DLAM-IACUC meetings to enhance communication between the two groups and to improve overallhumanecareofanimals,customerservice,andthequalityof the UNC animal care and use program. OACU worked closely with DLAM director to foster a good working relationship between DLAM leadership and IACUC.

OACU continued to meet with UNC Environment, Health and Safety (EHS), DLAM, the University Occupational Health Clinic (UEOHC) personnel, IT personnel in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, and

IACUC to discuss improvement of databases, communication, annual health questionnaire receipt, approval of hazard forms,and other critical issues. OACU implemented an automated annualhealthquestionnaire and instituted a system to improvecompliancewithannualcompletionofthequestionnaire.OACUmaintains online registration to automate the process of getting newanimal-handlerquestionnaires toUEOHCand tocatalogueand track new personnel. OACU coordinated meetings and helped design and implement an automated system for IBC and EHS forms andapprovalsrequiredofprincipalinvestigatorsbyIACUC.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearIncrease training opportunities for research personnel who •use laboratory animals.Develop a successful methodology for comparing animal-•use applications with related grant/funding applications and subcontracts. Use this process to assure the National Institutes of Health and other sponsors that researchers are approved to conduct the research for which they receive funding.Maintain or reduce the number of occurrences of expiring •protocols with animals in-house by improving the notification system, moving monthly meetings back, continuing the IACUC Hold protocol, and working more proactively with investigators to ensure that continuation applications are approved in a timely manner.Continue to assist in opening the Genetics Medicine Building •and in moving animals to the sub-basement facility. Develop a system for efficient IACUC inspection of this massive, 40,000-mouse cage facility.Maintain full AAALAC accreditation.•Implement electronic systems that improve data entry •efficiency and data mining, as well as flexibility and comprehensive reporting. Eliminate any duplicate data entry necessary for interagency data coordination and work with IT to replace Granite.Explore ways to enhance communication between IACUC, •OACU, and research personnel. Continue to build constructive working relationship with DLAM director.


• OCT managed the contracts of several large Carolinacoordinating center projects with a multitude of new and continuing subcontracts issued to research sites.

•OCTnegotiatedadditionalmaster agreementswithvariousindustry sponsors and other entities.

• OCT regularly offered training classes for clinical researchcoordinators, administrators, and investigators in a variety of formats. Presentation topics included such pertinent issues and popular topics as “Orientation for New Clinical Research Coordinators,” “Fundamentals of Clinical Trial Contracting,” “Reporting Adverse Events,” and “Writing a Clear Informed Consent.” Over 280 people registered for OCT’s various educational programs between January and July of 2010. A listing of future classes can be found at the OCT website under the “Education and Training” link.

•OCT provided an externship placement in the summer of2010 to a student from the School of Law.

Goals for the Coming Academic Year• Continue efforts to decrease contract review and approval

timeline through a variety of efficiency measures.•Increaseidentificationofclinicalresearchcoordinatorsnewto

Carolina and expand the “New Clinical Research Coordinator Orientation” workshop.

•Expandeducationalprogramtoincludeonlinetrainingmodules.•Continuewithcollaborationstomaintainacentralizedlisting

of all currently enrolled clinical trials on campus.

Office of Clinical TrialsBarbara Longmire, Director

C onsistent with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’smissiontoacquire,discover,preserve,synthesize,and

transmit knowledge and to provide an environment for research, the Office of Clinical Trials (OCT) provides a single point of service for clinical trial management by performing all administrative, legal, and budgetary pre-award functions for clinical trials. OCT was formed in January 2002, and officially opened on November 1, 2002.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearOCT was established in response to both campus and

industry requests for improved processing of clinical-trialagreements at Carolina. An increasing number of agreements have been processed by OCT since its inception. Of particular note in the past year is the existence of multicenter clinical trials that are managed or administered by Carolina. These have resulted in a significant increase in the number of subcontracts issued by the university to other entities.

Our major accomplishments during the past year include the following:•OCTestablishednewclinical trial contractual relationships

with over 45 companies.


Office of Economic and Business DevelopmentJesse White, Director

T he mission of the Office of Economic and Business Development (OEBD) is to connect North Carolina

communities and businesses to the economic development resources of UNC-Chapel Hill. OEBD serves as a gateway between the economic development community and the university, encourages faculty engagement in economic development, works to create awareness among external partners of Carolina’s unique resources and capacities, and makes its own uniqueeconomic development expertise available to both Carolina and community partners. OEBD defines economic development as both community development and business development with the goal of creating jobs, companies, and wealth in North Carolina communities. OEBD sees opportunities for nearly every unit at the university to play a role in this process.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearCommunity Economic Development Research Grants Program

During FY 2009-2010, OEBD oversaw the implementation of the following four grants by Carolina researchers: • Rudy Colloredo-Mansfeld (anthropology): “Local Food

Retailing and Enterprise Development: Identifying Cultural and Economic Assets for Successful Value Chain Partnerships”

• MaryannFeldman (publicpolicy): “Building Infrastructurefor Research and Data on the Economic Dynamics of the Research Triangle”

• DanielGitterman(publicpolicy):“BringingtheBenefitBankto North Carolina”

• Andrew Holton (Program on Public Life): “Infrastructureand Metropolitanization in Eastern N.C.” Each researcher presented research findings at meetings

of OEBD’s Working Group on Economic Development. The program was designed to support innovative, interdisciplinary, and collaborative research that positively affects community economic development in North Carolina. A description of the program may be viewed at http://research.unc.edu/oebd/.

UNC-Chapel Hill Working Group on Economic DevelopmentOEBD organized the fourth full year of the Working Group

on Economic Development, a robust network of over 150 faculty and administrators interested in engaged scholarship and public service in economic development. The principal goals of the group are to provide an interdisciplinary venue for discussion, to showcase examples of excellence in engaged scholarship, and to stimulate further basic and applied research at Carolina in economic development. Research presentations usually include a community partner who sponsored the research, participated in the research, and/or will utilize the research to address real-world problems and opportunities in North Carolina. During the fall of 2009, a survey of the working group showed a high level of satisfaction with the group among its members.

The seven meetings of the working group had an average of 40 faculty and administrative attendees from across campus and addressed the following topics:• BiotechnologyandmicroelectronicsinitiativesinRTP• Developinglocalfoodeconomies• EconomicdevelopmentincentivesinChathamCounty• RenaissanceComputingInitiativeatUNC-Charlotte• BringingtheBenefitBanktoNorthCarolina• MetropolitanizationinEasternNorthCarolina• GreenPlusandtheInstituteforSustainableDevelopment• Community-campus partnership in Lenoir and Caswell

CountiesSummaries and presentation materials from the working

group’s meetings may be viewed at http://research.unc.edu/oebd/.

The Appalachian Colleges Community Economic Development Partnership (ACCEDP)

Funded by the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund and UNC-Chapel Hill, ACCEDP is a partnership with the Appalachian College Association to work with four small private colleges in Central Appalachia to develop and deploy community economic development outreach programs. During FY 2009-2010, OEDB carried out final site visits and completed implementation of the grant. OEBD hosted a conference in May 2010 with representatives of the participating colleges as well as other interested parties throughout the state to share the results of the grant and to discuss campus-community partnerships more generally. OEBD is currently assessing the grant and will publish a final evaluation during the summer of 2010. The final projects are as follows: Mars Hill College (small-business outreach and training), Kentucky Christian University (convener and facilitator of county economic development players), King College (small-business resource center), and Ferrum College (last mile broadband initiative).

Carolina Economic Revitalization Corps (CERC)CERC, funded by the Vice Chancellor for Research and

Economic Development and organized by OEBD, began in

this year’s Carolina economic Revitalization Corps. Back row, from left: Fredrick Davis, Matthew Dudek, and Aaron nousaine. Front row: lindsay Moriarty, Kendra Jensen, and Suzanne Julian.


the summer of 2009 with the successful placement of nine graduate students at local councils of governments and the North Carolina League of Municipalities. These students helped both urban and rural communities find and apply for federal stimulus funding. Working with more than 90 localities, corps members offered technical assistance, connected community organizations, convened meetings, and tracked key information for municipalities. Building on the success of the project, OEBD convened an evaluation seminar in August to share results and begin planning for an expanded version of the program. A steering committee was formed and met throughout the year, resulting in the creation of a refined model for CERC. With matching funding from the North Carolina Rural Center and the Graduate School and administrative support from the School of Government, six graduate students were selected, trained, and placed in the field in June.

CERC members will complete 10-week summer work placements in regional and community organizations and will continue working from campus during the 2010-2011 academic year through a research assistantship. CERC members receive a stipend and tuition support for their work in economic development planning, grant identification, grant research and writing, and project implementation. The new group of corps members comes from graduate programs in Carolina’s Department of City and Regional Planning, the Master of Public Administration Program in the School of Government, and the Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Encouraged economic development engagement at CarolinaOEBD worked across the Carolina campus to facilitate

interdisciplinary work on issues of community economic development. The office helped convene interdisciplinary groups to draft proposals and participate in various projects, including the following: • BuildinglocalfoodsystemsinWarrenandOrangeCounties• Public health projects to address heart disease in Lenoir

County • Studying the feasibility of uranium mining in southern

Virginia • CreatingvibrantcentersintheRTPregion• Mapping innovation clusters throughout the state and

country OEBD also served on an interdisciplinary team with the

Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity to identify and measure indicators of economic distress on a statewide level, supported by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. In addition, OEBD participated in an interdisciplinary working group that examined the use of economic incentives at the state and local levels. The office also hosted a conference on campus-community partnerships in May 2010 with attendees from across campus and beyond.

The director serves on the steering committee for the Community Campus Partnership, which supports engaged

economic development work in Caswell and Lenoir Counties. During the past year, the OEBD director worked closely with many campus organizations, including the Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity, the Carolina Center for Public Service, the Office of Technology Development, the Engagement Council, and the Business Accelerator for Sustainable Enterprises.

Represented Carolina in the wider economic development communityThroughout the year, OEBD staff members made dozens of

presentations around the state and the nation on the importance of leveraging higher education assets for economic development. In particular, the office has provided informal conference to the N.C. Department of Commerce on a variety of topics, including incentives policy, job creation strategies, and cluster mapping opportunities.

On a local level, OEBD has convened a core group of economic development staff from Orange County, the towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough, and local chambers of commerce to identify areas of strategic overlap. A series of regular meetings of this group culminated in a small summit of elected officials throughout the county in the spring of 2010, during which the mayors of the three towns took ownership of the process of seeking common economic development goals for the county.

The director also chaired a subcommittee of UNC General Administration’s Economic Transformation Council, which identified a set of metrics to gauge economic development activities by all UNC campuses. The director serves on the “Reality Check” Action Committee, which seeks to implement the principles of a visioning project of Triangle Tomorrow and the Urban Land Institute. The director serves on the UNC General Administration Economic Transformation Council; on the national advisory boards of the Appalachian College Association, the Institute on Rural Journalism and Community Issues, and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation; and is a member of the board of directors of Regional Technology Strategies and the Rural School and Community Trust. Locally, he serves on the board of Triangle Tomorrow and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Alliance of the N.C. Rural Center.

Goals for the Coming Academic Year• Continuetopromoteinterdisciplinaryengagementoffaculty

and students with North Carolina partners.• Seekfundingopportunitiesforengagedcommunityeconomic

development research for Carolina faculty.• PublishthefindingsofACCEDP.• MonitorandseekadditionalfundingforCERC.• Continue todevelopworking relationshipswith theNorth

Carolina Department of Commerce.• Continue to share the expertise of the officewith external

partners and with Carolina faculty and students.• Continue to highlight excellence in engaged scholarship at

the Working Group on Economic Development and explore new possibilities for impact.


Office of Human Research EthicsDaniel Nelson, Director

T he Office of Human Research Ethics (OHRE) is responsible for ethical and regulatory oversight of research at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that involves human subjects. OHRE administers, supports, guides, and oversees the work of the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), and all related activities. Any human subjects research proposed by faculty, staff, or students must be reviewed and approved by an IRB before research may begin, and before related grants may be funded. OHRE and the IRBs are central components of a coordinated Human Research Protection Program that serves to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects. All components of this program work together to ensure institutional compliance with ethicalprinciplesandregulatoryrequirements.Thefollowingisamission statement for the Human Research Protection Program:

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is committed to expanding and disseminating knowledge for the benefit of the people of North Carolina and the world. An important part of thatcommitmenttoknowledgeisresearchofthehighestqualityon all aspects of the health and behavior of people, and such research is only possible through the participation of humans as research subjects.

Human subjects are partners and participants in research and a precious resource to the university. At UNC-Chapel Hill, research with human subjects is a privilege, but not a right. Consistent with that philosophy, it is the mission of the UNC-Chapel Hill Human Research Protection Program to ensure that:• Therightsandwelfareofhumansubjectsareparamountin

the research process.• Thehigheststandardsofethicalconductareemployedinall

research involving human subjects.• Researchinvestigatorsareproperlytrainedintheethicaland

regulatory aspects of research with human subjects.• Research investigatorsdealhonestly and fairlywithhuman

subjects, informing them of procedures to be followed, and of the risks and benefits of participating in research.

• Research using human subjects at UNC-Chapel Hillconforms with all applicable local, state, and federal laws and regulations and the policies of the university.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearThis was the seventh year of operation for OHRE, which was

established in 2003 through the integration of five existing school-based offices. The overarching goal is to maximize protection of human research subjects at Carolina. The reorganized structure supports this goal through the effective and efficient use of campus resources, increased capacity and accountability, and standardization of best practices. Highlights from the past year include the following:• TheuniversityreceivedfullaccreditationfromtheAssociation

for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP) in December 2009. This culminated

several years of work toward this goal, including a rigorous self-evaluation process; the campus-wide reorganization of all IRB operations; hundreds of pages of policies; a 1,500-page application to AAHRPP; and an intensive site visit involving 100 interviews across campus. This achievement places Carolina among the ranks of elite institutions that have met accreditation standards, and reflects positively on the entire research community.

• TheIRBsreviewed9,877submissionsduring2009,relatingto over 4,000 new and existing research studies. The number of submissions has grown by 13 percent per year since 1999, reflecting growth in the university’s research portfolio.

• A new, interactive web portal for online reporting ofunanticipated problems and adverse events was launched in 2009. The launch was accomplished with minimal difficulty, owing to intensive work behind the scenes on policy and technical issues. Policy changes reflected federal guidance that cleared the way to reverse decades of over-reporting of adverseevents,whichwasneitherrequirednorcontributingmeaningfully to protection of subjects. The changes have been well received by investigators and the IRBs. Moreover, work at the technical level provided a critical pilot test for online submission of all IRB application materials; programming for this larger effort is now in its final stages.

• TimelyprocessingofIRBsubmissionsremainsatoppriorityfor OHRE. Improved data-tracking systems allow us to monitor turnaround time from the date of submission to the date an investigator receives the results of IRB review, which is approximately three to five days for expedited reviews and 20daysforstudiesthatrequirereviewbythefullconvenedcommittee. These turnaround times compare very favorably to those of other universities.

• While the primary concern is research that requires IRBoversight, we continued our work to reverse what many perceive to be a growing “mission creep” for IRBs across the country, wherein regulatory oversight is extended to nonresearch activities. We have given considerable effort to more carefully defining what constitutes “human subjects research”at apolicy level, and thereforewhat requires IRBapproval at a functional level. In each of the last four years, 400-500 projects that might formerly have required fullapproval were determined through an abbreviated process to notrequirefurtherreview.

1999

nursing

2000 2001 2002 2006200520042003 2009

3,000

0

1,000

2008

2,000

2007

7,000

6,000

5,000

4,000

9,000

8,000

10,000

public health

Dental

Behavioral

Biomedical

the IRBs reviewed 9,877 submissions during 2009. the number of submissions has grown by 13 percent per year since 1999.


• TheCollaborativeInstitutionalTrainingInitiative(CITI)wasadopted in January 2005 as a web-based vehicle for satisfying educationalrequirementsinresearchethicsandIRBpractice.After the first year, Carolina became the largest user out of several hundred universities using CITI, and now has over 20,000 certified research personnel.

• Educationalseminarsandlectureswereprovidedinavarietyof settings across campus and in the local community, addressing ethics-related issues with students, faculty, staff, and interested members of the public. In addition, internal review sessions were held for all IRB chairs and staff to promote common understanding and application of the federal regulations.

• We contributed data to a national benchmarking effortconducted by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) consortium under the Clinical and Translational Science

Award (CTSA) network. Our processing times for IRB review of clinical trials were well below the network average. We continue to explore ways to gain further efficiencies in this time-sensitive enterprise, without sacrificing subject safety or welfare.

• OHREpersonnelcontinuedtoserveonmultipleuniversitycommittees, and to provide national leadership in the area of human research protections. National activities include the following:

Daniel Nelson serves as subcommittee chair of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections for the Department of Health and Human Services and as site visitor for AAHRPP.David Weber continues to work with the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee at NIH as part of a group developing guidelines for phase I and II clinical trials.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearThe reorganization and standardization of previously

independent IRB operations laid the groundwork for significant enhancements. The campus research community has been realizing the gains from a more efficient and effective system for human research oversight, and this was clearly reflected through the AAHRPP accreditation process. In the year ahead, our goals include the following:•Launch the new system for online submission of all IRB

application materials, including new protocols, amendments, and renewals. This will require careful coordination andtraining on a campuswide scale. Full conversion to a paperless environment will require at least one year to phase theconversion of existing studies.

• Continue to work with deans and department chairs toaddress difficulties in recruiting and retaining IRB members, especially those members who represent clinical areas.

• Collaborate with the NC TraCS Institute (establishedthrough the Clinical and Translational Science Award from NIH), the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and other campus groups to streamline and facilitate research efforts at Carolina. In particular, we are working to establish more effective and efficient processes for oversight of multisite clinical trials.

• ConductaseriesofretreatswithIRBmembers,chairs,andstaff to build consensus across areas of inconsistency or uncertainty.

• Refine policies and procedures in areas relating to datasecurity, working with information technology managers across campus.

the university received full accreditation from the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research protection programs (AAHRpp) in December 2009. Above: oHRe director Daniel nelson and executive Vice Chancellor and provost Bruce Carney.


Office of Information and CommunicationsKaren Regan, Director and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research

T he mission of the Office of Information and Communications (OIC) is to promote research and economic development at

the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by reporting the university’s success stories and by helping researchers, staff, and students identify opportunities for funding.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearEndeavors magazine

Endeavors magazine (http://endeavors.unc.edu/) won a silver medal in the 2010 Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Circle of Excellence Awards in the category of periodical staff writing for external audiences. This is Endeavors’ fifth CASE award since 2004. Entries are judged on writing style, organization, editing, creative story idea and development, and understanding of the institution’s mission and ability to communicate that mission.

The Endeavors staff mentors student writers every year. During the past year, the staff mentored eleven different student writers, including one student who worked a semester-long internship with the magazine for UNC course credit and another student who earned a six-month science-writing internship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science based primarily on her work with Endeavors.

In addition to reaching more than 45,000 readers three times a year with the print version of Endeavors, the magazine continues to reach audiences that extend far beyond its primary readership. For example:• The Herald-Sun reprinted an Endeavors article on Cuba in its

September 27, 2009, issue.• The State of Things on WUNC radio produced several segments

based on articles that appeared in Endeavors, including stories on Megawatt Solar (January 19, 2010) and Muslim-American Self Portraits (June 29, 2010).

• The nonprofit Food Bank of Central and Eastern NorthCarolina used an Endeavors article on hunger in North Carolina in its marketing and fundraising efforts, and stated that the article would “inspire the community to become an active part of fighting hunger.”

• The North CarolinaMuseum of History used an originalEndeavors illustration of Occaneechi Town, a Native American settlement near Hillsborough, in an exhibit.

GrantSource LibraryThe GrantSource Library provides funding information,

training, and grant-seeking services that support the research and scholarly activities of Carolina faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students. The library also helps meet the information needs of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development and its various units.

The total number of people served by the GrantSource Library in workshops and individually in fiscal year 2010 (FY10)

was 3,408. This marks a 37 percent increase over FY09. A detailed breakdown of this total shows that the library

offered 91 workshops (up 9 percent from FY09) on identifying funding sources and planning and developing proposals. These workshops served 1,713 faculty members, postdoctoral scholars, staff, graduate students, and others—a 24 percent increase inattendance over FY09. Of these workshops, 36 were for faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and staff (a 50 percent increase over FY09), and served 588 people. The library continued to emphasize training for research administrators and junior faculty, especially through joint sponsorships with other campus units that seek to integrate a funding-training component into their professional development activities. Of the total, 49 workshops were for graduate students, and several of these were part of campuswide graduate-development programs for minority and under-represented populations. We served 762 graduate students in these workshops, which included 29 outreach workshops (customized to the needs of specific groups) and 20 general, in-house workshops. An additional 363 non-UNC people were served in five outreach workshops and external professional organization events.

The library provided in-depth training, short demonstrations, ready reference, technical assistance, and other consultations to 1,695 patrons on an individual basis (up 11 percent from FY09), including 524 faculty members, 287 graduate students, 594 staff members, 60 postdoctoral scholars, and 177 others (including alumni and undergraduates). The biggest increases in the patron types we served were in postdoctoral scholars (up 42 percent), faculty (up 28 percent), and staff (up 24 percent).

Campus use of the COS Funding Opportunities database increased 12 percent, and there were 6,922 funding alert accounts as of June 30, 2009. These COS accounts reduce the need for repeated searches by automatically providing customized funding reports to patrons. COS users at Carolina had 108,726 funding opportunity page views in FY10. Another 848 searches (up 58 percent from FY09) were conducted using the InfoEd SPIN

During the past year, endeavors staff mentored eleven student writers and published twelve stories by student writers in the magazine.


funding database, with a total of 693,233 hits. We continued to increase both our use of SPIN and our patron instruction about this database, which is particularly useful for junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and medical residents. As of June 30, 2010, Carolina users had registered 213 InfoEd profiles, up 14 percent from last year.

In addition, the GrantSource Library staff have accomplished the following:• CreatedtheRecoveryActfundinginformationwebpage,a

central information portal that has been a model for similar web pages at other universities. It had 48,556 hits through June 15, 2010.

• Consulted on the planning and implementation of newfaculty development programs at internal units such as the School of Medicine, Translational and Clinical Sciences (TraCS) Institute, Center for Faculty Excellence, School of Dentistry, and Gillings School of Global Public Health.

• Cosponsored the “Graduate Funding 101” series with theGraduate School, University Libraries, and the Writing Center.

• Conductednumerous comprehensive funding searches andfollow-up consultations for research projects and major campus initiatives such as the Institute for the Environment visitability project, UNC Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters, the UNC Water Initiative, Carolina North infrastructure, and others.

• IncreasedResearch Support newsletter listserv subscriptions to 953 members, up 2 percent from FY09. The total number of page views for the newsletter was 284,419, up 56 percent from FY09.

• EvaluatedResearch Support funding opportunities weekly lists to assess their use by Carolina researchers. Based on results, ended the weekly listing of funding opportunities (except for internal funding, limited submission, and high-priority external funding opportunities), saving approximately 20 hours per week of staff time.

• Maintained and publicized the Carolina Internal FundingDatabase (IFD), which now lists 228 internal funding opportunities (up 2 percent from FY09). Streamlined the updating process for IFD contributors.

• UpdatedandpublicizedtheUNCRoadmapfundingguides.• Maintainedthe“FactsandRankings”pagesontheResearch@

Carolina website. • Worked with the Office of Research Information Systems

to construct an online database for successful fellowship proposals to allow for easier access to this heavily used print resource (expected roll out in fall 2010).

• Developed Funding Guides (online funding informationweb pages) for nonprofit organizations, small businesses andentrepreneurs,andundergraduatestudents.Thesequickreferral tools have been a time-saving way for the library to respondtonon-UNCornonpriorityinquiries.

• Prepared campuswide mail merge distributions for otherOVCRED units to publicize major events, policies, and other important announcements.

• Consultedwithotherinstitutionsseekingtodevelopsimilaroffices or services, including Ochsner Clinic, Johnson C. Smith University, and Tuskegee University.

• ProvidedfeedbackandtestingforCOSandElsevier’sSciValfunding opportunity and expertise tools.

• GrantSource librarians presented at the annual conferencesof the UNC General Administration’s Sponsored Programs and Research Council (SPARC), the National Council of University Research Administrators, and the N.C. Society of Research Administrators. The librarians also presented at public-service outreach programs across the state, including the N.C. Small Business Technology Development Center-sponsored National Institutes of Health SBIR/STTR Seminar (Elizabeth Allen) and the National Estuarine Research Reserve grant-seeking workshop (Susan Gramling).

• Reviewedandgeneratedtagsformorethan2,200photosinthe “Images of Carolina” collection.

Website developmentOver the past year, the Research at Carolina website had more

than205,000uniquevisitors,andthesiteaveragedjustover1,000visits per day. Traffic to the site came from 200 different countries and territories around the world.

During 2009–2010, OIC staff accomplished the following:• Hired a full-time webmaster to provide support to the

OVCRED administrative offices.• Beganinternaldistributionandanalysisofwebsitemetricsto

improve site usability.• Migrated RED (research and economic development)

websites to CarolinaContent, a new publishing platform that will allow individual offices greater control over their web content. Provided CarolinaContent training and assistance to web contributors throughout the division.

• CreatedwebsitesforeachissueofEndeavors magazine.• Maintained and updated the Carolina North, Centers &

Institutes, Facts & Rankings, and Recovery Act websites.• Developed,updated,andmaintainedthousandsofwebpages

and documents that serve the campus and the public.

Director and Associate Vice ChancellorDuring 2009–2010, Neil Caudle accomplished the following:

• Continuedleadershipandsupportfortheefforttoestablisha Galapagos Science Center, and led negotiations with our

the GrantSource library provided training, demonstrations, and consultations to 3,408 people, up 37 percent from FY09.

Faculty Grad students postdocs Staff

200

400

800

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0

2004-20052005-20062006-20072007-20082008-20092009-2010


GrantSource Library• Finalize transition of Successful Fellowship Proposal

Collection to online database. • Increasethenumberofone-on-oneconsultationsforfaculty

and the number of training programs for postdoctoral scholars and staff.

• Continuetodeveloprelationshipsandreferralnetworkswithresearch administrators, development officers, librarians, and others to extend our reach and make better use of time and resources.

• Work with the TraCS Institute core program directors toprovide new faculty training.

• Workwithmoregraduatedepartmentsandschoolstocreatecustomized funding guides for their students.

• FinalizethetransitionofResearchSupporttothenewblogformat and increase the quality and quantity of campusnews and events published there by liaising with other OVCRED offices to provide training and technical assistance in publishing news to CarolinaContent, the university’s new content management system.

• Revise website content for the new system, includingconsistent, value-added instructions for using library resources.

• Complete transition of library’s trainingmanual to a wikiformat and update training materials.

• Continue outreach, focusing on UNC system universities,K-12 education, and local and regional economic development activities.

partners at the University of San Francisco, Quito, and other stakeholders in the Galapagos Islands.

• Revised and updated factsheets for legislators and campusleaders on facilities and administration (F&A) funds and the value of centers and institutes.

• Contributed information to the Bain study and oversawimplementation of several key OVCRED areas.

• Providedguidanceandsupportformultipledirectorreviews.• Contributed to decisions involving policy and planning

within OVCRED.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearEndeavors magazine•ContinuetoimprovethequalityofthewritinginEndeavors

by rigorous story workshops, and continue to improve the visualqualityofEndeavors by focusing on photography and design.

• TheEndeavors website is currently a static record of the print version. To better serve the university’s mission, we will launch a site that is a standalone destination for Carolina researchandcreativeactivity,isupdatedfrequently,andisnotwedded to the print edition. Websites and print magazines serve different functions and different audiences, and our site will have a greater reach and greater impact if it were updated frequentlywitharticleswrittenspecificallyforthesite.

• Redesignandaddcontenttotheuniversity’sRecoveryActwebpage, which showcases American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding awarded to researchers at Carolina.


Office of Postdoctoral AffairsSibby Anderson Thompkins, Director

T he mission of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA) is to foster success among postdoctoral scholars today that will

enhance their professional endeavors tomorrow. As part of that mission, we enhance, support, and promote postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and help to prepare postdoctoral scholars for successful research careers. OPA serves postdoctoral scholars, faculty, and staff in all disciplines, schools, and colleges across the university. Additionally, the office is responsible for a broad range of duties including: administering the UNC Postdoctoral Scholars Policies; providing individual career counseling, coaching, and consultations; sponsoring professional development programs; supporting the recruitment and retention of postdoctoral scholars; integrating postdoctoral scholars into the larger university community; and serving as the central resource unit on campus for postdoctoral issues.

The goals of our office include the following:• Advocateforpostdoctoralscholarsandthegreaterpostdoctoral

scholar community.• Educate postdoctoral scholars and the campus community

about university policies, postdoctoral rights, and other concerns related to postdoctoral scholars.

• Build effective career management skills and develop theprofessional skills postdoctoral scholars need both inside and outside the lab.

• Support faculty mentors in the recruitment, mentoring,and professional development of productive postdoctoral scholars.

• Assist staff in the posting, hiring, and promotion ofpostdoctoral scholars.

• Collaborate with campus services to address the issues,concerns, and needs that are unique to the postdoctoralscholar population.In addition to the services and goals listed above, OPA supports

the UNC Postdoctoral Association and sponsors the Postdoctoral Awards for Research Excellence in recognition of postdoctoral scholars who demonstrate outstanding research promise.

Major Accomplishments During the Past Year Implementing the National Postdoctoral Experience Study

One major goal for OPA this past year was to collect data to understandtheuniqueexperiencesandneedsofourpostdoctoralscholars. Survey Sciences Group, LLC, working with the National Postdoctoral Association, conducted a national pilot study on the postdoctoral experience. Carolina was one of several peer institutions chosen to participate in the pilot study. The study uses a survey method and was designed to collect basic information on the characteristics of postdocs and the expectations that postdocs bring to their training, as well as to measure postdoc satisfaction with training and mentorship. The study also examined training outcomes such as research productivity and future career plans. Findings from the study suggest that OPA continues to distinguish itself from other postdoctoral offices around the country by offering personalized career counseling and coaching

for its postdocs. According to the study, approximately 30 percent of the responding postdocs indicated that their career interests had changed since completing their professional/doctoral degrees. OPA’s individual career counseling provides these postdocs with a framework for clarifying their career directions, including assistance with career exploration, decision-making, and effective career planning.

The remaining postdocs indicated an interest in pursuing traditional academic research careers, and OPA works extensively with them to improve their prospects in a highly competitive academic job market. Our faculty advisors provide individual consultations and offer guidance on navigating the challenges of becoming independent researchers. In addition, individual counseling is available to help postdocs design and implement a comprehensive career-development and job-search plan. This includes skills development, job targeting, networking, and interview coaching.

Securing Oliver Smithies Lecture SeriesAnother major goal for OPA was to work with the Office

of University Development to formulate a development plan to support new initiatives for postdoctoral scholars. This past year, OPA acquired the gift of the Oliver Smithies Lecture Series.Oliver Smithies, 2007 Nobel Laureate, donated funds from a portion of his Nobel Prize winnings to recognize the contributions of postdoctoral scholars to the multidisciplinary research mission of Carolina.

Supporting promising postdoctoral research Since 2004, OPA has sponsored the Postdoctoral Scholars

Awards for Research Excellence in recognition of the research promise demonstrated by individual postdoctoral scholars. The awards are open to postdoctoral scholars in all disciplines

More than half of postdoctoral scholars at Carolina plan to pursue tenure-track faculty positions.

52% tenure-track faculty

(research focus)

25%Research position

10% tenure-track faculty

(teaching focus)

8%Journalism or science

writing

2%Consultant or

business owner

2%law

1%Administration


and designed to assist postdoctoral scholars in their continued professional development by supporting conference travel, funding purchases of books and lab materials, or supporting engagement in other scholarly activities that directly enhance the individual’s professional growth. Each recipient receives a monetary award of a$1,000,alongwithaplaque.

Joyee Ghosh and Kai Ziervogel, 2009 award recipients, were asked to present to the Postdoctoral Advisory Committee on their recent travels, which were funded by the Postdoctoral Scholars Awards for Research Excellence Program. Ghosh, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biostatistics and a joint appointment under professors Amy Herring and Anna Maria Siega-Riz, attended the Ninth Valencia International Meeting on Bayesian Statistics. Every four years since 1979, the University of Valencia, Spain, has sponsored meetings devoted to Bayesian Statistics, which are attended by famous statisticians. Ghosh’s research interests include building flexible models of weight gain in pregnancy. Ziervogel, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Marine Sciences and an appointment in professor Carol Arnosti’s lab, joined a research cruise on the R/V Atlantis (submersible Alvin) to the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California. His research interests include

the dynamics and formation of marine aggregates and the role of aggregate-associated enzymes in the global carbon cycle.

Sustaining a national presenceOPA continues to be a respected source for peer institutions

that are developing services and programs for postdoctoral scholars. This past year, the office has provided technical assistance to Harvard University, Duke University, East Carolina University, North Carolina Central University, UNC Greensboro, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University, North Carolina State University, Brown University, University of Washington, and University of Virginia.

The director served on several boards, including the NPA ADVANCE: From Postdoc to Faculty: Transition Issues for Women Scientists. She presented a peer-reviewed paper titled, “Bottoms and Rotating Centers: Race Scholars on the Politics of Race, Identity, and Research” at the American Educational Studies Association. She served as an invited speaker for the opening session of the National Summit on Gender and the Postdoctorate and as the keynote speaker for the North Carolina Central University Department of Public Administration Executive Master’s of Public Administration Annual Retreat.

In addition, the associate director served as an invited speaker for the National Postdoctoral Association’s Annual Meeting and presented a talk titled “Networking: A Tool for Building Relationships and Expanding Your Career Options.” She also served as an invited speaker for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Annual Biomedical Career Fair, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Networking and Leadership Training Series, and the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Postdoc Job Search Boot Camp.

Goals for the Coming Academic Year• Continue to analyze and disseminate findings from the

National Postdoctoral Experience Study, consulting with the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science.

• Develop and implement a strategy to communicate thepurpose and goals of the UNC Postdoctoral Policies to the broader campus community.

• Work with deans, department chairs, and other faculty toensure that the office is meeting the needs of the academic colleges and departments in regards to postdoctoral training.

• Sustain national presence in organizations dedicated toenhancing postdoctoral training.

Carolina postdoc Kai Ziervogel joined a research cruise on the R/V Atlantis. Ziervogel studies the dynamics and formation of marine aggregates and their role in the global carbon cycle. Above: the view from the DSV Alvin at around 2,000 meters in Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California.


Office of Research DevelopmentJacqueline Resnick, Director

Advancing the scope and efficacy of research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is at the heart of the Office

of Research Development (ORD). Building interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research has been and continues to be the focus of our research and development efforts. Established in 1996, the office prides itself in being highly innovative in bringing disciplines together andhelping to formunique research teams to supportCarolina faculty. ORD manages the university’s grants- and awards-review process for limited submissions, ensuring that faculty gain visibility. This program builds on Carolina’s exceptional research reputation and focuses on helping our young faculty members gain national and international recognition. In addition, ORD identifies socially relevant projects to promote service through research by engaging Carolina’s scholars in projects associated with social justice issues. ORD continues to focus on translational research projects that have practice- and/or community-based outcomes that affect North Carolina and its citizens.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearProposal and grant development

During fiscal year 2009-2010, ORD was involved with 37 projects totaling more than $191 million in submitted grant funding requests.ORDprovided support to16 schools and28departments. Expertise in research methodologies and evaluation research in support of crossing disciplinary boundaries requiresincreased efforts from our unit. Training and outreach activities are part of research development and require sensitive team-building efforts and problem solving capabilities. The ORD staff pride themselves in providing this support.

Some examples of this year’s research-development activities include the following:• PatPukkila,DepartmentofBiology.HowardHughesMedical

Institute, University Research Grants, Undergraduate Science Education Core, $2.8 million.

• ReaganMoore,RenaissanceComputingInstitute,DataNet.A major research grant submitted to the National Science Foundation (NSF) is currently under review for $20 million.

• IreneZipper,DepartmentofAlliedHealthSciences.Researchgrant to the Department of Health and Human Services in support of a military program for children with special health-care needs and their families was funded for $1 million.

• Dan Reichart, Department of Physics and Astronomy.NSF, Major Research Instrumentation (MRI-R2) (ARRA), Targeted Expansions of the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network’s Wavelength, Geographic, and User-Community Footprints, $1,795,854.

University-nominated (limited-submission) awards and grants:ORD manages the university’s nomination and selection

process, which supports faculty competing for awards and grants that place a limit on the number of submissions allowed from

an institution. These prestigious awards recognize Carolina’s most promising young researchers in the early stages of their careers. Several awards also target senior faculty who have made significant contributions during their careers. ORD solicits nominations, organizes internal review committees, facilitates the selection of candidates, and provides support to faculty as they prepare applications. In addition, ORD helps those faculty members who are not selected seek alternative funding opportunities. All candidates are provided written feedback from reviews. This year, 33 faculty members representing 20 academic units participated on review panels. Fifty-nine grant and award applications were submitted seeking over $50 million in funding, and 19 grants and awards are pending or in development. So far this year UNC has won five such awards representing approximately $16 million in funding.

The following faculty members have received awards (amounts awarded included, if applicable):• Alice Ammerman, Department of Nutrition. National

Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research: NIH Supported Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities (P50). Center to Reduce CVD Disparities: Genes, Clinics, and Communities, $9,984,903.

• VirginiaMiller and Pat Phelps, School ofMedicine.NIHNational Institute of General Medical Sciences PREP, $1,417,876.

• SilviaTomaskova,DepartmentsofAnthropologyandWomen’sStudies. Mellon New Directions Fellowship, $225,000.Some of the limited award grants that have been submitted

and are under review include the following: • Bruce Carney, provost, and Valerie Ashby, Department of

Chemistry. NSF Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3). North Carolina Alliance to Create Opportunities through Education, $1,250,000.

• Morris Weinberger, Department of Health Policy andManagement. NIH Trans-NIH Recovery Act Research Support (ARRA). KM1 Institutional Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Mentored Career Development Program, $2,500,000.

• BrianWhite,DepartmentofMarineSciences.DepartmentofCommerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology. A Salt-Water System for the UNC Marine Sciences-Applied Mathematics Joint Fluids Laboratory, $1,295,259.

• James Swenberg, Department of Environmental Scienceand Engineering. NIH, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Superfund Research and Education, Environmental Exposure, and Effect of Hazardous Chemicals, $3,003,347.

Educational outreachWorkshoprequestscontinuetocomeintotheoffice.Wehave

to limit the number of seminars and workshops we offer, as we did last year, due to limited resources and staff. This year we presented a workshop for the leadership group of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development as well as a seminar for the Office of Sponsored Research proposal staff. We collaborated with EVaP (Evaluation, Assessment and Policy Connections) in


the School of Education to present a campuswide seminar on evaluation. The associate director will present a seminar for new faculty in conjunction with the Center for Faculty Excellence this fall.

Other activitiesORD identifies and supports unique projects of social

significance that serve both the university and the people of North Carolina. This year the unit continued to support research related to energy and the environment, including a $120 million collaborative solar-energy grant proposal to the Department of Energy. ORD partnered with the Research Triangle Institute, Duke, and NC State University, as well as national labs, energy-related industries, and other universities across the nation. We are currently working to develop a project that uses wind energy as a resource for eastern North Carolina. ORD is working with Hillel to bring Elie Wiesel to campus to speak on social justice in October 2010. We continue to support local nonprofits in partnering with university programs, which enhances their capacity to access funding (for example, the Center for Child and Family Health in Durham and SEEDS, a program supporting the development of life skills and nutrition for high risk youth in Durham).

Gail Whitfield, ORD’s program coordinator, has been asked for a fifth year to participate on the chancellor’s SPA Grievance Committee. Her involvement provides direct support for the university community.

Regina Bartolone, our associate director, has expanded her involvement and is making important contributions to our unit and to the university. This year she presented at a session at the annual National Council of University Research Administrators Region III meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, on limited submissions. She is working closely with the Center for Faculty Excellence and will present a seminar for new faculty this fall.

Francinia McKeithan, our graduate student, is involved in a variety of research projects and will start a new collaborative project this fall with Archie Ervin, Associate Provost for the Office of Diversity/Multicultural Affairs, to build a database of university projects that work with minority and diverse populations. This database will provide baseline information for proposal development and is much needed by our faculty.

This year the director presented a seminar and chaired two sessions at the newly formed National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP). She has also been appointed as a board member of that organization. The provost has appointed her to the board of the African American Research Institute on campus and she serves on the boards of the Carolina’s Women Center and the Native American Center. She continues to provide support to the U.S. Military through her involvement as the only civilian academic scientific consultant and research judge for the worldwide Uniformed Services Academy of Family Physicians. She has been invited to participate for twenty years now, and regularly selects papers to be presented at the scientific assembly and judges the research presented.

ORD was recognized at NORDP’s national meeting in Chicago this past year as the nation’s first formal Research and Development Office whose goal was to build interdisciplinary research and has been identified as a model in higher education. NIH contacted the ORD director this year to adapt UNC’s limited-submission program as a potential internal model for the institutes.

Goals for the Coming Academic Year• Continue to support research and scholarly needs at

Carolina.• Enhanceandsupporttheuniversity’scapacitytorespondto

large program and center grants.• Continuetosupporttheincreasingnumberofcampus-wide

collaborative efforts.• Consultwithdeansanddepartmentheadsregardingstrategic

planning for research and target two schools every other year for focused research-development support.

• ProvideeducationalopportunitiesforORDstaff.• IdentifywaystoincreaseORD’sresources,especiallygraduate

student involvement.• Further the integration of research, education, and public

service. Carolina’s research makes outstanding contributions to

improving the world in which we live. As stated in previous highlights reports, we are honored to be a part of these efforts and privileged to work with our outstanding faculty and staff.


Office of Research Information SystemsAndrew Johns, Director

T he mission of the Office of Research Information Systems (ORIS) is toprovidequalityIT/ISsupporttoresearchand

economic development offices involved in all aspects of the research enterprise at Carolina. ORIS also designs and maintains cutting-edge information systems for use by faculty and staff within the research community.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearRAMSeS (UNC’s research- and proposal-management

system, developed and maintained by ORIS), was launched on July 3, 2006. Working closely with the Offices of Sponsored Research, Sponsored Programs, and Clinical Trials, and with significant input from campus users and departments involved in research activities, ORIS has made many major upgrades and enhancements to RAMSeS during the system’s first three years. ORIS continues to develop and enhance RAMSeS, adding new functionality to support UNC’s research programs. Some of these enhancements include an online account closeout (NOTR) process, a subcontracting module, an effort-management system, and reporting upgrades, among others. RAMSeS has also been tightly integrated with many other research administration offices, including the Institutional Review Board (IRB), the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine (DLAM), the Office of Technology Development (OTD), and the Research Compliance Program. ORIS has also completed a project to implement RAMSeS and other research administration tools throughout all University of North Carolina campuses. As of December 2009, all schools in the UNC system are using RAMSeS as their primary system for managing proposals and awards.

ORIS staff also continue to improve on the foundation of the IRB management system (IRBIS) by adding additional functionality, including online submission of unanticipated problems and adverse events by faculty and staff and electronic document imaging. Progress toward the second phase of online submission (which will include all remaining IRB forms) has been significant and is scheduled to go live this fall.

The development of the RAMS system (used to manage all aspects of laboratory-animal care) has been completed. ORIS is the final stages of implementation planning, testing, and data conversion. The RAMS system is scheduled to go live this fall.

ORIS has continued to plan and develop a new research expertise ‘profiling’ system called ReachNC. Work on this project progresses with close collaborations with North Carolina State University and the Renaissance Computing Institute. The primary purpose of this system is the provide university and community leaders a better window into the research enterprise so that they may better understand what expertise exists on campus. Making this type of information available will likely lead to increased

collaboration possibilities and better availability of information.Over the past two years, ORIS planned, developed, and

implemented a new intellectual-property management system (BLUE) for use by campus researchers, OTD, and the general public. During the past year, many additional enhancements have been developed to add further value to campus. Many of these enhancements, including an MTA module and new financial management module, will go live during fiscal year 2011.

The Vitae system for electronic management of faculty biosketches has been developed and pilot tested by several departments at Carolina. Final preparations are underway to make this service available to the rest of the university. In addition, ORIS continues to enhance the system in order to provide new functionality aimed at simplifying biosketch management and access.

With the assistance of OTD, ORIS signed an agreement with Cayuse Inc., based in Portland, Oregon, to make Cayuse the exclusive licensor and distributor of the RAMSeS system and other research administration modules developed at Carolina. Cayuse is now the commercial entity that is marketing, licensing, and supporting the Carolina Research Administration suite of tools to other universities around the country.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearDevelop and implement new information systems for DLAM. •Information systems will assist with the management of veterinary care, animal census, and billing.Develop and implement major enhancements to RAMSeS, •including an updated award-management module, effort-management functionality, and updated reporting.Develop and fully implement online submission of protocols •for the human research protections program on campus.Implement a new effort-reporting system (Huron eCRT).•Develop and implement a new clinical trials management •system.Develop and implement major enhancements to ACAP, the •animal care information system.Develop and implement several key upgrades to the BLUE •system, including online MTA and financial modules.

Blue logo


Office of Sponsored ResearchVanessa Peoples, Kelly Musty, Sherri Settle, Kevin Maynor, and Phyllis Daugherty, Interim Codirectors

The mission of the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) is to provide the best possible customer service to campus in

order to support all aspects of sponsored-research administration and ensure compliance with university, state, and federal requirements.

OSR is responsible for administering all externally funded projects, including submitting proposals to sponsors and negotiating awards on behalf of the university; performing post-award administration; ensuring financial compliance with federal regulations, sponsor guidelines, and restrictions and with university policies and procedures, audit, financial reporting and cash management; financial compliance, cost studies, and effort reporting; and training.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearDuring FY2010, Carolina reviewed and submitted 4,581

new, competing, noncompeting, and supplemental proposals. Carolina received 4,548 awards totaling more than $803 million, representing a 12 percent increase over FY2009, demonstrating the continuation of a trend of uninterrupted annual increases over the past 10 years. Of the $803 million, approximately 326 awards totaling $126 million were received as a result of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA).

Fiscal year 2010 research expenditures exceeded $737 million, representing a 10 percent increase over FY2009. In addition, facilities and administrative recoveries reflected an increase of 13 percent over FY2009, exceeding $147 million.

Proposal management

The proposal management divisions in OSR and in the Sponsored Programs Office in the School of Medicine review and submit proposals for sponsored funding. In the academic year 2009-2010, these offices submitted 4,581 proposals to federal, nonprofit, foundation, state, and for-profit sponsors.

The advent of electronic submissions has helped Carolina become entirely paperless in the proposal-management process. In February 2010, Cayuse 424 was deployed campuswide. Cayuse 424 is a web application that facilitates Grants.gov proposal development, electronic system-to-system submission, and enhanced ability to capture project information (budget, personnel, and subcontractor) for reporting and other purposes.

Award management

The award management division is responsible for administering all of Carolina’s externally funded grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts. The division establishes awards, negotiates subcontracts, and pre-audits proposed expenditures. In May 2010, the award management unit consolidated under a modelthatestablishesaprimarypointofcontact—theprogramadministrator—foreachcampusunit.Programadministratorsare

organized into teams and each team is supported by a program coordinator. Program administrators are assigned to departments and are responsible for all aspects of postaward administration except billing and cash management.

During FY2010, the award management division administered over 4,000 active projects, established 2,726 new accounts, and negotiated 436 subcontracts. The division, in conjunction with the Office of Research Information Systems (ORIS), implemented project rollup functionality in RAMSeS that organizes proposal and award records, in order to reduce the number of unrelated transactions and promote project focus.

Financial reporting and cash managementThe financial reporting and cash management division is

responsible for timely submission of sponsor financial-status reports and invoices, as well as ensuring timely receipt of sponsor funding. During FY2010, OSR processed a total of 10,968 invoices and financial reports. The total funds received as a result of invoicing and letter-of-credit draw-downs for FY2010 were more than $717 million, an increase of 7 percent over FY2009. OSR also transitioned to a cash-receipts lockbox service with Bank of America. The lockbox service will improve cash flow, decrease the time required for payment processing, and increase interestearnings on cash receipts.

OSR, in collaboration with ORIS, implemented an online e-progress report in RAMSeS to assist with the new quarterlyreporting requirements establishedbyARRA.Asof June2010,400ARRAquarterlyreportsweresubmittedtoFederalReporting.gov.

Cost analysis and complianceA campus committee of representatives from OSR and

academic units completed its charge to recommend an effort-reporting solution that meets institutional compliance standards and the needs of the research community. The web-based effort-reporting software has been purchased and will be implemented by the end of calendar year 2010.

New Research Core and Service Center (RSC) policy and procedures have been written and are under campus review by a campuswide committee. Additional user-friendly proposal and rate-development tools have been created to offer the campus community flexibility in submitting proposals that undergo a

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standardized rate review and approval process that has improved significantly. Several new research cores were established in FY10.

A web-based facilities and administrative (F&A) space survey computer application was developed through a collaboration with OSR, Facilities Services, and an outside software developer. The FAST (F&A Survey Tool) system features dynamic cross-departmental communication and data-view functionality to provide surveyors with efficient access to critical information (user reports, floor plans, space, financial and personnel data) designed specifically to achieve a comprehensive and highly accurate research space survey. The F&A space survey will begin in the fall of 2010 followed by submission of the next F&A cost rate proposal to the federalgovernmentinthefirstquarterof2011.

Training and developmentThe classroom version of the Level I Tar Heel Certificate

Program was conducted on campus in January 2010. Fifty participants from units across campus graduated from the program. In addition, OSR participated in the delivery of a new training course for new principal investigators with a focus on financial compliance. This course was developed in conjunction with the Center for Faculty Excellence and will be offered periodically throughout the upcoming year.

Several policies and procedures were updated, including Effort Reporting (600.5), Outgoing Subcontracts (500.11), and Cash Advance (500.14). In addition, a new policy for Residual Fund Balance (700.4) was established.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearImplement a web-based effort-certification system. •Develop effort-commitment tracking in RAMSeS and •

implement standardized monitoring procedures.Develop award-management functionality in RAMSeS to •streamline and increase efficiencies, including salary reports by project and individual, expenditure reports, and automated subcontract generation.Implement new RSC policies and procedures through •the Research Core and Service Center advisory committee and continue to improve Service Center compliance and administration.Complete the F&A space survey to support the UNC strategy •to increase F&A cost rates.Prepare the F&A cost-rate proposal and negotiate an increase •in the F&A recovery rate with the federal government. Reduce OSR process redundancy and inefficiencies, •implement consistent OSR procedures, and train employees to improve and standardize communication to campus regarding current policies and procedures. Offer campuswide training on specific award management •topics.Expand OSR toolkits to include award-management guidelines.•Continue to improve employee morale. Provide leadership •and training so staff may perform their jobs proudly and accurately.Implement a termination notification process to give academic •units notice with instructions in advance of project end dates in order to promote timely project closeout. Expand Level II research administration certificate program •offerings.Continue collaboration with the Center for Faculty •Excellence to provide additional training for campus research administrators.


Office of Technology DevelopmentCathy Innes, Director

T he University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) is charged with connecting

the fruits of university research to the companies that are best equipped to bring them to the public, and in doing so, to tapinto new sources of income to encourage innovators and support additional research.

The intangible benefits of technology transfer are as important as the financial payback to the university and its researchers. Like the roots bring nourishment to the whole tree, the activities of OTD spread the benefits of university research to Chapel Hill, the Research Triangle, the state of North Carolina and its industries, and, ultimately, the global community.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearThe Carolina Express License

OTD developed the Carolina Express License Agreement to offer one set of terms to cover widely divergent deals with minimal negotiation. This standard license has typically been difficult to implement due to the widely divergent technologies, interests, and value across transactions. Carolina is first among its peers to offer the same set of terms to all Carolina start-up companies. The idea for a standard license grew out of a committee formed earlier this year by Tony Waldrop, then Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development. The committee was chaired by Joseph DeSimone, Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry at Carolina, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University, and founder of Carolina start-upLiquidiaTechnologies.Thecommitteeincludedseveralotherentrepreneurial faculty members and representatives from OTD and from the venture capital firm Intersouth Partners. Several attorneys from Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton, Hutchinson Law, andSmithAnderson—localfirmsthat representmanyCarolinastart-upcompanies—alsodonatedtheirtimeandexpertisetohelpfinalize the license agreement.

The Carolina Express License offers the same terms to all Carolina start-ups and offers the best deal available from the university. Key provisions include the following:

Aroyaltyof1percentonproductsrequiringU.S.Foodand•Drug Administration-approval based upon human clinical trials.A royalty of 2 percent on all other products.•A cashpayout equal to 0.75percent of the company’s fair•market value will be paid to Carolina upon a merger, stock sale, asset sale, or initial public offering.Provisions to make products available on a humanitarian •basis in developing countries.

The agreement does not include provisions granting Carolina equityinthecompanyandmilestonefees.Thecommitteefoundthatwhilemostuniversities’start-updealshaveequityprovisionsin lieu of cash-up-front fees, it is difficult for the university to manage equity and by the time a liquidation event occurs, theuniversity position is not significant. Carolina arrived at the payout value and royalty terms through an analysis of previous transactions.

New companies from Carolina technologies (licenses completed in 2010)

Clinical Sensors was formed in 2010 by Mark Schoenfisch in the Department of Chemistry. Clinical Sensors will provide nitric oxide sensors for the early detection of sepsis. Sepsis is the leading cause of death in noncardiac intensive-care units (ICUs) and the tenth-leading cause of death overall in the United States. Clinical Sensors executed a Carolina Express License for this technology.

Dyzen was formed in 2009 by Cam Patterson, Chief of Cardiology and Physician-in-Chief of the UNC Center for Heart and Vascular Care, Holly McDonough, and Ron Lineberger around a lab-management software program they developed to track grant-management data and material inventory in the lab.

Enci Therapeutics was formed in 2010 by Cam Patterson, Chief of Cardiology and Physician-in-Chief of the UNC Center for Heart and Vascular Care, and Nancy DeMore in the Department of Surgery. Enci is developing monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of breast cancer and is located in Chapel Hill.

G-Zero was founded in 2008 by Norman Sharpless in the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and Kwok-Kin Wong to capitalize on discoveries made and patented by Sharpless’s lab at Carolina,andsubsequentlylicensedtoG-Zeroin2010.G-Zeroiscurrently developing both therapeutic and diagnostic applications and is located in Chapel Hill (www.gzerothera.com).

Synereca Pharmaceuticals was formed by Scott Singleton, an associate professor in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The company addresses the growing problem of bacterial resistance to current antibiotics by developing orally active drugs that restore or increase the effectiveness of existing antibiotics. The company’s initial program focuses on inhibiting RecA, a key enzyme in bacterial DNA repair as well as in the development and transmission of antibiotic resistance. Prototype RecA inhibitors potentiate the killing of a wide variety of pathogenic bacteria by a broad range of bactericidal antibiotics. The company is located in Chapel Hill (www.synereca.com). Synereca was the first company to execute the Carolina Express License agreement.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearContinue high attendance at Carolina Innovations Seminar •Series.Introduce “First Look Forum” in fall to complement •“Innovation Showcase” in spring.Provide boot camp for the School of Pharmacy.•


Research Centers and Institutes

the Kohlmeyers discovered the first members of a new family of fungi that turned out to belong to an entirely new order—Koralionastetales. In the summer of 2009, the

Kolmeyers gave their herbarium of 6,000 dried samples and 17,500 microscope slides to the new York Botanical Garden, where the materials will be preserved and digitized. the

Kohlmeyers retired from Carolina last year.


Carolina Population CenterKathleen Mullan Harris, Interim Director

T he Carolina Population Center (CPC) is a community of outstanding scholars and professionals engaged in population

research and training. Its goals are to create new knowledge about population size, structure, and processes of change; develop new sources of data to support population research; promote the development and use of innovative methodologies; build skills and capacity and train the next generation of scholars; and disseminate data and findings to population professionals, policymakers, and the public.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearCPC serves the research and training interests of an elected

body of faculty fellows. There are now 60 elected faculty fellows representing 16 departments and five schools at Carolina. CPC does not hire faculty or admit graduate students; academic departments are responsible for these activities. Rather, its mission is to provide the intellectual environment and research infrastructure to allow faculty and students interested in the population field to do pathbreaking research. Five new faculty fellows were elected this past year: Pamela Jagger (public policy), Klara Peter (economics), Eleanor Seaton (psychology), Whitney Robinson (epidemiology), and Yang Yang (sociology).

In August 2010, CPC director Barbara Entwisle was appointed as interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development at Carolina. Kathleen Mullan Harris, James E. Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology, was appointed as interim directorofCPC.Harris’researchcentersonsocialinequalityandhealth, focusing broadly on health disparities, the acculturation of immigrant youth, and adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Harris, a CPC faculty fellow since 1990, has extensive leadership

experience and is highly respected in the field of population research. She served as president of the Population Association of America in 2009, and since 2004 has been the principal investigator of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a major longitudinal study of environment and health trajectories from adolescence into adulthood.

CPC-based research focuses on population size, structure, and change using broad and diverse perspectives. Last year, CPC’s portfolio included 43 funded projects covering the broad spectrum of population research. It is a reflection of the diversity of CPC’s research that in 2010 the center’s signature themes were expanded to include eight topics: sexual behavior, contraceptive use, and reproductive health; fertility, families, and children; life course perspectives; biological and social interactions; population movement, diversity, and inequality; place, space, and health;population and environment; and population and health policies and programs. Links to CPC’s research projects and publications related to these themes are highlighted on the CPC website, which was redesigned in spring 2010.

In 2009-2010, CPC received $47.7 million in funding. New awards included the following:

A National Institutes of Health (NIH)/Eunice Kennedy •Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) R01 grant of over $670,000 to examine the emergence of chronic disease risk during the early adult years, focusing on disparities by socioeconomic status. An NIH/NICHD R01 grant of $1.6 million for a study of •sexual trajectories from adolescence into adulthood.An NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse RC1 grant of •$1 million for an Add Health project that integrates genetic polymorphisms, epigenetic markers, social contextual measures, and developmental periods into analysis of risky health behaviors.A grant of $2.2 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates •Foundation for a study of nutrition and infant health in Malawi.17 other new awards from NIH, the National Science •Foundation (NSF), USAID, Save the Children UK, the Spencer Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation. The CPC Summer in Residence program involved three

faculty fellows, who began development of their research plans in summer 2010, to assist with their first NIH proposal submissions. Submissions were targeted for fall 2010.

Above: Faculty fellow Margaret Bentley in Malawi. A $2.2 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a CpC study of nutrition and infant health in Malawi.

the CpC website was redesigned in spring 2010.


CPC is widely recognized as a premier population research center. In 2009, CPC submitted a competing renewal of the R24 grant from NICHD that funds its core services. The review of this proposal resulted in a perfect score. Comments by reviewers included: “This is an exceptionally well written application that provides strong evidence that CPC is one of the best population centers that exists…CPC makes enormous contributions to the field of population studies and to a number of related disciplines…the Center is strong on leadership, administration, substance, and innovation.”

CPC fosters an intellectual community, promotes conversation across disciplinary boundaries, encourages collaboration, enhances research quality, and increases researchproductivity. It does so by providing a wide range of research services, expert advice, seed money for project start-up, space for projects, learning opportunities in seminars and workshops, and a normative environment in which excellence is expected. Faculty fellows, postdoctoral scholars, and predoctoral trainees publish their work in top journals in demography, sociology, health, and medicine. In 2009, they published a total of 295 scholarly articles, book chapters, and books. CPC research is being picked up by the popular press more and more often, as well. Between July 2009 and June 2010, 220 newspaper articles, radio and television news segments, and internet-based news postings featured CPC research.

As a leading population center, CPC provides an exciting environment for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to train. In 2010, Kyle Crowder, Howard W. Odum Distinguished Professor of Sociology, replaced Barbara Entwisle as director of the CPC Training Program. During the 2009-10 academic year, there were 46 predoctoral trainees and 10 postdoctoral scholars in the CPC Training Program. In 2010, CPC postdoctoral scholar Nathalie Williams submitted an NIH Pathway to Independence career development award grant proposal for a project titled, “SelectiveMigrationandtheMacroDemographicConsequencesof Armed Conflict.” This proposal received a perfect score from reviewers. This is just one example of the many recent

accomplishments of CPC trainees. With support from NIH and NSF, CPC’s undergraduate summer internship program provides a research and professional development framework for undergraduate students who are interested in population-focused graduate training and careers. The internships provide an opportunity for students to participate in multidisciplinary research teams, develop a better understanding of research and what it entails, develop an interest in population research, and add to their research skills.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearOver the next year, the center will continue to serve the

population research and training needs of its faculty fellows and trainees.

Above: Faculty fellow Sudhanshu (Ashu) Handa with undergraduate intern Farai Sikipa, Class of 2012. CpC’s undergraduate summer internship program provides research opportunities to students interested in pursuing careers in the field.


Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services ResearchTim Carey, Director

T he Cecil G. Sheps Center for Heath Services Research seeks to improve the health of individuals, families, and populations

by understanding problems, issues, and alternatives in the design and delivery of health-care services. This is accomplished through an interdisciplinary program of research, consultation, technical assistance, and training that focuses on timely and policy-relevant questionsconcerningtheaccessibility,adequacy,organization,cost,and effectiveness of health-care services, and the dissemination of this information to policymakers and the general public.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearFostering primary-care research in North Carolina

North Carolina has a vibrant primary-care system and strong primary-care educational programs. Recently, much interest has focused on the need to improve primary-care delivery, both as an element of health-care reform and through private-sector initiatives such as the patient-centered medical home. Such efforts benefit from a partnership with research organizations such as the Sheps Center; we help ensure that changes in practice are informed by the best evidence available. Since 2000, Sheps Center scientists have fostered primary-care research through leadership and administration in the North Carolina Research Network and the North Carolina Network Consortium, and through involvement in Carolina’s campuswide Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute, the Carolina affiliate of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical and Translational Science Award network. This engagement with practices and patients will bring doctors, practice staff, and the public closer to the research process.

North Carolina Family Medicine Research Network (NC-FM-RN): Founded in 2000, the NC-FM-RN is a statewide research program that has included studies in over 40 practices and thatmaintainsauniqueprimary-carepatientcohort.Themissionof the NC-FM-RN is: “To improve primary-care medical practice in North Carolina by: promoting and conducting practice-based research, enrolling and maintaining a cohort of family-practice patients from practices throughout North Carolina, gathering data and conducting studies on problems relevant to the practice of family medicine, and offering hassle-free opportunities for family physicians to participate in research.” Funding for the NC-FM-RN has come from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute for Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Research studies have addressed patient-care issues such as osteoporosis and home blood-pressure monitoring, as well as practice-improvement issues such as use of electronic medical records to improve delivery of preventive services.

The North Carolina Network Consortium (NCNC): NCNC is a diverse, statewide consortium of providers, academic institutions, and patients, whose mission is to address pressing questions related to the delivery of primary-care health services

and the management of primary-care problems. Six practice-based research networks (PBRNs) have combined resources in forming the NCNC, which is codirected by Philip Sloane and Leigh Callahan, and administered by the Sheps Center. Together, NCNC’s networks represent over 615 providers in over 140 practices across the state, including all three primary-care specialties (family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics) and strong representation of minority populations. The participating PBRNs include the NC-FM-RN, the Duke Primary Care Research Consortium, the Eastern Carolina Association for Research and Education, the N.C. Multi-Site Adolescent Research Consortium for Health, the Mecklenburg Area Partnership for Primary Care Research, and the Robeson County Primary Care research Network. Under a master task order contract from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, NCNC has conducted a series of studies, many of which have focused on dissemination of evidence-basedpractice,oncontinuousqualityimprovement,andon improvement of linkages between primary-care practices and community resources.

Fostering primary-care research within the UNC TraCS Institute: The Sheps-affiliated practice-based research program has been working with the community engagement core of Carolina’s Translational and Clinical Studies (TraCS) Institute to foster better research connections between scientists across campus and medical practitioners in the state. TraCS is a campuswide, NIH-funded initiative aimed at encouraging better translation of research into practice. As part of this, Sheps primary-care research scientists and staff have assisted in the development of a new child-health network, developed and promulgated research methods to help scientists effectively partner with busy office practices, provided consultation and technical assistance to basic and clinical scientists, and served as coinvestigators in a variety of translational research studies.

Advancing measurement of patient-reported outcomesAnother initiative, the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measure-

ment Information System (PROMIS), is a network of NIH-

the north Carolina network Consortium addresses pressing questions related to the delivery of primary-care problems. Member practices are scattered throughout the state.


funded primary research sites and coordinating centers working collaboratively to develop a series of dynamic tools to measure patient-reported outcomes. Since PROMIS was established in late 2004, Carolina has served as one of the primary research sites. Under the direction of Darren DeWalt, researchers at the Sheps Center have been integral in the development of PROMIS instruments and data collection. PROMIS provides an opportunity to improve health-care outcomes by giving decision-makers hard data on how health care affects what patients are able to do and how they feel. PROMIS utilizes advances in computer technology and modern measurement theory to assess outcomes in a standardized manner.

The broader PROMIS Network has focused on developing item banks about different aspects of health-related quality oflife (including pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, anger, social functioning,physical functioning,andqualityofsleep) inadultpopulations. Carolina was involved in the process of validating these item banks by coordinating data-collection efforts in a clinical population of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In addition, Carolina directed the development and testing of the social-health item bank.

Carolina was the only site among the initial PROMIS grantees to develop item banks for the pediatric population. The Sheps Center team and collaborators developed item banks for pediatric populations in the domains of physical functioning, pain, fatigue, asthma impact, emotional distress, and social health. Carolina was the lead site in studies to test and validate these item banks in pediatric populations with chronic illnesses, including cancer, chronic kidney disease, obesity, rehabilitative needs, rheumatic disease, and sickle cell disease. This testing occurred across 26 research hospitals and universities around the country and in Canada, and data was collected from over 1,400 participants. Much of this work at Carolina was coordinated through the NC TraCS Institute as one of the first community-based data collection programs for TraCS. As a supplement to the pediatric item banks, Carolina has converted the pediatric items to parent proxy report items that can be used if a child is unable to self report on his or her symptoms.

In the fall of 2009, Carolina was awarded another NIH grant to further develop and test PROMIS. In PROMIS-2, the university is collaborating with other research universities and hospitals to validate the pediatric item banks in four pediatric chronic illnesses (asthma, cancer, nephrotic syndrome, and sickle cell disease). These are longitudinal studies to evaluate the responsiveness of PROMIS instruments to important changes in clinical status and compare the responsiveness of PROMIS to existing measures. Knowledge

about the responsiveness of PROMIS is crucial to using these measures to improve patient outcomes, as clinicians must be able to detect both the beneficial and harmful effects of treatment. As part of PROMIS-2, Carolina will also link PROMIS pediatric item banks with the adult banks. This will provide comparable scores across pediatric and adult item banks and enable longitudinal studies that cross from childhood to adulthood. Children with serious chronic illnesses now commonly survive into adulthood, and we must learn more about how they are functioning in society and how to assist them in functioning better.

The UNC PROMIS team has continued to collaborate with other research sites to develop and test the adult PROMIS item banks. For example, in collaboration with Carolina’s Thurston Arthritis Center and the Johnston County Arthritis Project, the UNC PROMIS team is testing new measures of social health for adults. The university is also conducting a longitudinal study of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to help establish validity of the PROMIS instruments. All of these efforts, along with the substantial efforts in pediatrics, demonstrate the Sheps Center’s central role in advancing measurement of patient-reported outcomes for use in clinical research.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearCarolina investigators will work with federal agencies

to rapidly expand our capacity to conduct and disseminate comparative effectiveness research on both state and national levels, including collaborating with other institutions in training the next generation of researchers in comparative effectiveness research.

The state’s health-care workforce is in flux, and growth is expected to continue in many areas. The health workforce is one of the few areas of growth during the current economic slowdown. The Sheps Center will work with the state on issues related to health-care provider training and supply so that jobs will lead to long-term career opportunities.

The passage of the federal Affordable Care Act health reform bill represents only the first component of efforts to transform health care in the state of North Carolina and the nation into a systemthat ismoreaccessible,affordable,andofhigherquality.Sheps Center-affiliated faculty and staff will collaborate with state andfederalofficialstoimprovethequalityofinformationgivento providers and the public on the effectiveness of preventive interventions and treatment strategies. Such information will allow patients to arrive at the best decisions for their health and inform policymakers regarding areas of under- and over-utilization of technology.


Center for Galapagos StudiesStephen J. Walsh, Director

T he Center for Galapagos Studies (CGS) is the coordinating unit for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s

Galapagos Initiative. This initiative marshals Carolina’s research strengths to address the complex pressures facing the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, a recent (2007-2010) “at risk” UNESCO World Heritage Site and birthplace of evolutionary science. Focusing on the interactions among population, health, and environment, CGS engages scientists from across campus as well as collaborative partners in Ecuador and beyond through programs of research, education, and outreach to accomplish the following:

Provide North Carolina students with world-class •opportunitiesinthisunique“naturallaboratory.”Improve the scientific understanding of the social, terrestrial, •and marine subsystems of the Galapagos Islands and their integration as a global template to address the challenges of resource conservation, economic development, and social and ecological dynamics in the Galapagos Islands and other vulnerable places around the globe.Develop the Galapagos Science Center (GSC) with our •partnering institution, the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), on San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos Archipelago, a facility dedicated to increasing our understanding of human-environment interactions that are important to science and society.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearPartnership with USFQ

The partnership between Carolina and USFQ continues on our campuses and in the Galapagos Islands. The centerpiece of the partnership is the joint development of the GSC, a facility dedicated to integrative research in population, health, and environment. Situated on San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos Archipelago of Ecuador, GSC also emphasizes undergraduate and graduate education and community and organizational outreach. Earlier this summer, ground was broken for the GSC at its waterfront site at Playa Mann on San Cristobal Island. The building, which is nearly 12,000 square feet, will contain four research labs,a conference room, faculty and student offices, office space for visiting scientists, and access to dormitories, a kitchen, and a dining room at the adjacent GAIAS center (Galapagos Academic Institute for Arts and Sciences, the USFQ undergraduate teaching facility). Carolina support for GSC is provided by the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, and the director of the Renaissance Computing Institute. A building dedication is being planned for May 2011.

Inaugural Galapagos Science Center advisory board meeting The advisory board of the GSC held its inaugural meeting on

San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos Archipelago in July 2010. Board members at Carolina include Ron Rindfuss (sociology),

John Bruno (marine sciences), and Karen Regan (Associate Vice Chancellor for Research). Board members at USFQ include Diego Quiroga, Carlos Valle, and Gunter Reck. Ex officio members are Carolina’s Steve Walsh, codirector of the GSC (geography) and USFQ’s Carlos Mena, also codirector of the GSC. The advisory board discussed administrative, operational, and policy issues associated with the GSC and its operation. The next meetings of the advisory board will be in October 2010 at Carolina and in May 2011 in the Galapagos Islands.

Seed-grant program CGS has awarded seed grants to Carolina faculty to develop

research ideas, create networks of collaborative researchers at Carolina and USFQ, gather preliminary data, and conduct initial analyses on topics related to the social and ecological dynamics of the Galapagos Islands. The seed grants funded in 2009-2010 include the following:

John Bruno (marine sciences): “The role of grazers in linking •intertidal and subtidal habitats in the Galapagos Islands.”Ken Lohmann (biology): “Biology and conservation of •Galapagos sea turtles.”Jonathan Lees (geological sciences): “Harmonic tremor on •ocean island volcanoes: Quasi-periodic vibrations of active vents at Cerro Azul and Sierra Negra.”Rachel Noble (Institute for Marine Sciences): “Examining •aquatic microbial contamination using current and novelmethodsforwater-qualityanalysisintheGalapagosIslands.”Margaret E. Bentley and Marci Campbell (nutrition), •Krista Perreira (public policy), and Julee Waldrop (nursing): “Nutrition and health of mothers and young children of Isabela Island, Galapagos: A pilot assessment.”As a requirement of the program, awardeeswill prepare at

least one proposal for extramural funding based on their seed grant activities.

Student research activities This year the number of doctoral dissertations being conducted

in the Galapagos Islands increased, and an undergraduate student

the Galapagos Science Center will be dedicated to increasing our understanding of human-environment interactions that are important to science and society.


has started work on an honors thesis there, as well. The following lists the ongoing projects:

Laura Brewington (Department of Geography and the •Carolina Population Center): “The politics of invasion: Defining and defending the natural, native, and legal in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador.”Lindsey Carr (Department of Biology): “The interacting •effects of herbivores and productivity on algal diversity and biomass in the Galapagos Islands.”Courtney Cox (Department of Biology): “Wahoo •(Acanthocybium solandri) migration and population structure and the implications for fisheries management in the Galapagos.”Kim Engie (Department of Geography and the Carolina •Population Center): “The role of fisheries in the Galapagos Marine Reserve: Ecological pressures and societal structures.”Liz Hennessey (Department of Geography): “On the backs of •turtles: The politics of nature in the Galápagos Islands.”Ben Heumann (Department of Geography): “Mapping •suitable habitat using spatial and spectral vegetation remote sensing techniques:Case studyof the critically endangeredmangrove finch.”Amy McCleary (Department of Geography and the Carolina •Population Center): “Linking household & community characteristics to social & ecological factors: A study of pattern-process relations and LULC dynamics on Isabela Island, Galapagos archipelago, Ecuador.”Liza Guzman (Curriculum in Ecology & Environment): “In •the aftermath of the sea cucumber wars: Fisheries governance and human-environment linkages in the Galápagos Islands.”Emily Willis (undergraduate in the Department of •International Studies): “The peopling of the Galapagos: Implications for a World Heritage Site.”

CGS faculty research fellowsThese Carolina faculty members have been named CGS

fellows for a four-year term beginning September 1, 2010: Ron Rindfuss, sociology; John Bruno, marine sciences; Peggy Bentley, nutrition; Ken Lohmann, biology; Larry Band, geography; Rachel Noble, marine sciences; Gabriela Valdivia, geography; Michael Emch, geography; Aaron Moody, geography; Brian White, marine sciences; Pat Davison, journalism and mass communications; Conghe Song, geography; Phil Berke, city and regional planning; Jonathan Lees, geological sciences; Todd BenDor, city and regional planning; Marci Campbell, nutrition; Kyle Crowder, sociology; Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, anthropology; Joel Fodrie, marine sciences; Clark Gray, geography; David Guilkey, economics; Elizabeth Havice, geography; Allen Hurlbert, biology; Pam Jagger, public policy; Paul Leslie, anthropology; Pia MacDonald, epidemiology; Margarita Mooney, sociology; Pete Peterson, marine sciences; Jose Rial, geological sciences; Mark Sobsey, environmental sciences and engineering; and Andreas Teske, marine sciences.

New undergraduate course A new undergraduate course, Geography 269, “Population-

Environment Interactions in the Galapagos Islands,” was developed and first offered in fall 2009. For fall 2010, the course is being enhanced through a Lenovo-Center for Faculty Excellence Grant to link Carolina and USFQ students in the Galapagos Islands through the internet to examine the social and ecological implications of human-environment interactions in a world-renowned, protected area. New activities will include sharing local video interviews with stakeholders in the Galapagos, data visualizations of documentaries of life and challenges in the islands, and student interactions with an agent-based model of the Galapagos Islands.

CGS steering committeeJamie Bartram, environmental sciences and engineering and •director of the Global Water Institute Peggy Bentley, nutrition, associate director of the Center for •Global Health and Infectious Diseases, and associate dean in the Office of Global Health Phil Berke, city and regional planning and deputy director of •the Institute for the Environment Gary Bowen, social work •John Bruno, marine sciences •Peter Coclanis, history and director of the Global Research •Institute Kathie Harris, sociology and interim director of the Carolina •Population Center Jonathan Hartlyn, political science and senior associate dean •in the College of Arts and Sciences Ken Lohmann, biology •Phil Page, program manager in the Center for Galapagos •Studies Karen Regan, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research •Ronald Rindfuss, sociology and fellow in the Carolina •Population CenterStephen J. Walsh, geography and director of the Center for •Galapagos Studies.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearPromote UNC-USFQ research collaboration. During •October 3-8, 2010, approximately 10 USFQ faculty will be on the Carolina campus to form or expand research teams with Carolina faculty, develop new research initiatives, and generate project statements leading to new proposals for extramural funding.Complete construction on the GSC. Construction is •underway on Isla San Cristobal and the dedication is expected to be in May 2011.Develop management procedures for the GSC. The center •is working with USFQ to develop procedures for the management and operation of the GSC. Our goal is to be ready for the summer 2011 field season for Carolina faculty and students.New undergraduate study abroad programs. CGS and the •Institute for the Environment are jointly developing programs with the Study Abroad Office at Carolina. The first offerings are expected to be in the 2011 spring and summer terms.


Researchers in the Hope Accounts project will bridge the gap between economic disparities and health among women in rural eastern north Carolina.

Center for Health Promotion and Disease PreventionAlice Ammerman, Director

T he mission of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP) is to reduce health disparities by

collaborating with communities to conduct research, provide training, and translate research findings into policy and practice. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention selected HPDP to be one of its first three Prevention Research Centers (PRC) in 1985. Now comprised of 37 academic institutions, the PRC program is an interdependent network of community, academic, and public-health partners that conduct prevention research and promote practices proven to promote good health.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearNew research

In the past year HPDP researchers received several major research awards to support the development of innovative, community-based approaches for preventing disease and promoting good health. The center receives no state support but continues to leverage its PRC funding to grow its interdisciplinary research base through new grants for research, training, dissemination, and capacity development. New projects include the following:

A five-year, $10 million grant from the National Heart, Lung •and Blood Institute to establish a Center for Population Health and Health Disparities. The new center includes three research studies (genetic, clinical, and community-based), known collectively as Heart Healthy Lenoir, which will focus on reducing heart disease and stroke in Lenoir County. HPDP director Alice Ammerman (nutrition) and Cam Patterson, chief of the Division of Cardiology at Carolina’s School of Medicine are coleading the project, which involves collaborators from East Carolina University. Tom Keyserling and Stacey Sheridan received a two-year, $3.1 •million Comparative Effectiveness Research grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to compare the effectiveness of web-based and counselor-led programs for improving diet and physical activity and appropriate use of medication to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. The HOPE Accounts project, funded by a $1 million ARRA •grant, will help HPDP researchers to bridge the gap between economic disparities and health among women in rural eastern North Carolina. The researchers are investigating social determinants of health and will assess the extent to which financial support helps women adhere to nutrition and physical activity programs and lose weight. HOPE Accounts extends the work of HPDP’s core project, Seeds of HOPE, which has related goals, but no specific mechanisms for supporting women in addressing economic challenges. Both projects are led by Marci Campbell (nutrition) and Salli Benedict (HPDP) in partnership with community and tribal organizations in four eastern counties.

The Community Leadership and Reciprocal Development to •Advance Community-Engaged Research project, also funded by an ARRA grant, is building capacity for community-based participatory research (CBPR) by engaging skilled members of community-based organizations as coleaders in a program of training and technical assistance. Facilitated guidance sessions, called charrettes, will bring community and academic experts together to help community-academic research teams develop skills for successful partnerships. This study, conducted in collaboration with the NC TraCS Institute and Vanderbilt University, is led by Wanda Hunter and Alexandra Lightfoot, both of HPDP.

Research findingsOther HPDP investigations moved to completion with data

analyses that demonstrated program effectiveness. These findings have been published, or will be published in the coming year.

The Breastfeeding, Antiretroviral and Nutrition study, led by •Charles van der Horst (medicine), revealed that both infant and maternal antiretroviral therapies reduce the chances that HIV-positive mothers will pass the virus to their children through breast milk. The Weight Wise dissemination study, led by Carmen Samuel-•Hodge (nutrition), revealed that a weight loss program based in local health departments can lead to significant weight loss and improved health status for low-income women. Women in the HOPE Works intervention lost significantly •more weight than women not in the program. Women in the program also significantly increased physical activity levels, fruit and vegetable intake, and their senses of hope for the future. This study was led by Marci Campbell (nutrition).

Policy impact of HPDP researchThe White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, part of •First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to reduce childhood obesity, recommended the NAP SACC program as one of three interventions to combat obesity in early childhood. This program is based at HPDP, led by Dianne Ward, and


disseminated through the Center of Excellence for Training and Research Translation (Center TRT, www.center-trt.org). HPDP director Ammerman was selected to serve on the N.C. •Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council and has worked to link the activities and recommendations of the council and the N.C. Legislative Task Force on Childhood Obesity to statewide obesity-prevention initiatives.The U.S. Senate cited HPDP’s internet cigarette vendors •study, led by Kurt Ribisl (HBHE) and Rebecca Williams (HPDP), in its unanimous decision to pass the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act. The act curtails the growing sales of tax-evading, low-cost cigarettes and other tobacco products over the internet and through the mail.HPDP researchers Robin Crowder and Molly DeMarco •helped the Carrboro Farmers’ Market acquire funding toimplement Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps), to give low-income residents access to local, healthful foods. The market began accepting the cards on May 1, 2010. Pastor Patricia Peterson, a longtime member of the HPDP •Community Action Council, served as the House Public Appointee for the Joint Legislative Study Commission on Poverty Reduction and Economic Recovery. The commission created a report for the General Assembly addressing problems and solutions to poverty throughout North Carolina.Carolina’s Kellogg Health Scholars program, based at •HPDP, hosted a two-day policy advocacy training session for community leaders in June. The “train the trainers” session invited HPDP community partners to learn strategies for policy advocacy.HPDP helped bring local food and sustainable agriculture •resources to the university. This included a local food catering guide to provide university departments with contact information of restaurants and caterers who have pledged to use local foods as much as possible. HPDP researchers also helped to initiate the Campus Community Garden, which offers the harvest to lower-wage university employees.

TrainingThe center offered training opportunities to students, faculty,

staff, and community members this year. Center staff and faculty mentored 74 multidisciplinary students in 2009-2010, from undergraduate students to postdoctoral trainees. The center is the home to the Kellogg Health Scholars postdoctoral program and mentored three scholars this year. The center also hosted the CBPR Seminar Series, which was attended by more than 100 university and community members. The Center TRT project website disseminated evidence-based to more than 7,447 new visitors in 2010. There were 2,600 repeat visitors and more than 6,700 intervention documents were downloaded.

Interdisciplinary network of scholarsWe accepted ten new research fellows this year, bringing

the number of scholars who seek engagement with the center’s research program to 42. The fellows came from the Schools of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, and Social Work. Five postdoctoral fellows and one international visiting faculty member also collaborated in center research this past year.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearContinue to provide research and policy leadership to address •the obesity epidemic. Specific goals include the following:

Develop new collaborations to promote the role of the business community, economic development, and social entrepreneurship in designing and sustaining innovative solutions to address the obesity epidemic.In collaboration with Duke University, develop a healthy-weight intervention targeting family child-care homes that includes a focus on promoting a healthy business, a healthy home, and a healthy provider. Test policy strategies for promoting increased physical activity at child-care centers.

Collaborate with clinical and community partners in Lenoir •County to design and test innovative approaches to reducing cardiovascular health disparities.Working with the NC TraCS Community Engagement Core, •provide leadership in strengthening relationships between the university and N.C. communities by continuing to develop a community-connection portal and by leading priority-setting sessions with community-based organizations and networks.Through the Center TRT project, promote evidence-based •practice regarding chronic disease prevention through research translation and distance learning to a national audience of public-health practitioners and community partners engaged in health promotion.Evaluate the relevance and effectiveness of the center •in achieving its mission through internal and external stakeholder surveys and interviews. We will use findings to guidecontinuousquality-improvementmeasures.

An HpDp parenting study offers fun activities for parents and children during their project sessions.


Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and DisastersRick Luettich, DirectorGavin Smith, Executive Director

The mission of the Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters is to advance our understanding of hazard

resilience through basic and applied research, and to transfer that knowledge into action, resulting in reduced loss of life or injury and lessened damages to the built and natural environment. We are pursuing hazards resilience through a better understanding of both the natural phenomena of hazards and the effects of hazards on human settlements (i.e., disasters). Relevant natural hazards include hurricanes, coastal erosion, flooding, drought, high winds, earthquakes,winterstorms,landslides,andthoseexacerbatedbyclimate change.

Areas of research interest include hazard and disaster modeling, land use planning, technology applications in hazards research and practice, the social implications of hazards and disasters, environmental hazards management, law and policy, public health, and business and economics. We are developing research questionsandpracticalapplicationsintheseareasandarelookingfor collaborative partnerships across our campus, throughout the UNC system, and with other researchers and practitioners from federal and state agencies, foundations, international relief organizations, corporations, the insurance industry, and others.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearAdministration and advancement of DIEM

Funding from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate Center of Excellence Program was a catalyst for the Hazards Center. The Center for the

Study of Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure, and Emergency Management (DIEM) is funded by a six-year, $15 million grant, which includes 16 U.S. universities. This grant represents the first stage in a larger effort to create Carolina’s Hazards Center.

DIEM is expanding its research portfolio to include the study of additional natural hazards while increasing the number of social science and planning-based research projects. For example, DIEMhashosted threehazards colloquia focusedon tsunamis,wildfires, and earthquakes. And DIEM researchers are earningmorefrequentrecognition.RickLuettich’swork,forinstance,wasawarded a DHS Science and Technology Impact Award for his application of models forecasting storm surge and flooding in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

New projectsDuring the past year, several new research projects have

begun at the Hazards Center, many of which draw on the diverse expertise of the Carolina campus and other partners.

FEMA Community Rating System plan evaluation. The Institute for the Environment (IE), in partnership with the Hazards Center, has begun a FEMA-funded national study of local flood-hazard reduction plans (Community Rating System plans). This studybuildsonthemethodsandresearchtechniquesdevelopedduring a DIEM-funded research project led by the same group of researchers. FEMA will use the findings to assess and improve existingplanrequirements.

Integrated assessment of social and physical resilience. This is a joint project between the Hazards Center, IE, and the University of Maryland-based DHS Center for the Study of Terrorism and the Response to Terrorism. The project will assess the social and physical dimensions of disaster resilience at the community level. Researchers will collect indicators of physical and social resilience by using archival data and key informant surveys, and they will then develop an integrated model of community resilience. The metrics developed could be applied nationally to assess resilience and monitor or model changes that result from new policies, training, or other forms of intervention.

the Hazards Center extended the capabilities of the coastal circulation model ADCIRC to track near-shore oil movements after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. left: Model simulations of wind velocity (arrows) and storm surge (colors) during Hurricane Gustav, which made landfall on September 1, 2008. Right: the oil patterns (black dots) that may have developed if Hurricane Gustav had occurred when a significant amount of oil was in the water off the louisiana coast.


Assessing state disaster recovery planning capabilities. The Hazards Center has begun a one-year project, funded by DHS and led by principal investigator Gavin Smith, to develop an evaluationtoolthatwillassessthequalityofstatedisasterrecoveryplans. The evaluation protocol will be beta tested using three state plans and, once refined, the protocol will be used to evaluate the qualityofNorthCarolina’sdisaster recoveryplan.Theprotocolmayassistinthedevelopmentofemergingfederalpolicy—whichdoesnotcurrentlyexist—regardingthemakeupoftheseplans.

North Carolina sea level rise study. Members of the Hazards Center have completed a draft text for the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management that describes existing state policies, programs, and plans, and their effect on the ability of the state to adapt to rising sea levels. This information will undergird the next phase of the study, which is to identify recommended sea level rise adaptation strategies that are either feasible given the existing state regulatoryframeworkorwillrequirepolicychanges,newfinancialinvestments, or training for state and local officials.

Near-shore oil trajectory modeling for the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Immediately following the failure of the Deepwater Horizon oil well, the Hazards Center secured National Science Foundation (NSF) Rapid funding and DHS funding to extend the capabilities of the high-resolution coastal circulation model ADCIRC—which was originally developed for stormsurgeandfloodingstudiesinthenorthernGulfofMexico—foruse in near-shore tracking of oil. Researchers developed scenarios for potential oil movement under hurricane conditions in the area and daily forecasts of oil movement, which were provided through the website adcirc.org/oilspill. Principal investigator Rick Luettich discussed the potential effects of hurricanes at meetings for two congressional committees and on numerous media outlets, including National Public Radio and the Weather Channel. Luettich also advised the N.C. Division of Emergency Management, the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, and the Southeastern SeaGrant Programs on the likely impact of the oil spill on the East Coast and specifically coastal North Carolina.

Theory of disaster recovery workshop. The Hazards Center, in partnership with the Public Entity Risk Institute and California Polytechnic University, has been awarded an NSF grant to convene hazard scholars from across the United States in Chapel Hill in November 2010 to develop the first proposed theory of disaster recovery. The published proceedings will define the model, identify a proposed research agenda, and identify possible sources of funding to test the theory.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearThe principal goals of the Hazards Center are the following: Expand understanding of hazard science through rigorous •interdisciplinary research focused on hazard resilience.Develop a translational model that moves knowledge into •practice using IT products, education, extension, and training methods that reflect the diversity and needs of targeted audiences.

Become a self-sustaining organization, utilizing leveraging •opportunities fostered through center partnerships.

Specific activities planned for the upcoming year that will help achieve these goals include the following:

US State Department partnership in South East AsiaIn September, Gavin Smith will spend two weeks in the

Philippines and Hong Kong conducting lectures and seminars with university faculty and national and local officials. The State Department-sponsored event will focus on the nexus between climate-change adaptation and planning for natural hazards and disasters. The trip will also help establish partnerships with South East Asian universities, national government officials, and the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planning.

Haitian postdisaster planning and advisory assistance The Research Triangle Institute, the Hazards Center, and the

Department of City and Regional Planning have teamed with UniversitéQuisqueya(UniQ)todevelopaproposal tohelptheHaitian government improve its planning for postdisaster recovery and reconstruction. The researchers will identify planning needs in Haiti, develop appropriate, locally-grounded courses, and deliver them in Port Au Prince to midlevel ministry officials and architecture students. The second phase of the proposed project will focus on the development of a city and regional planning program at UniQ.

Joint research agenda with NOAA’s National Climate Data CenterThe Hazards Center is partnering with the National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climate Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, to finalize a memorandum of agreement that focuses on joint research and engagement projects associated with climate-change adaptation and natural hazards risk reduction.

North Carolina Natural Hazards Researchers WorkshopThe Hazards Center will host a workshop for hazard scholars

from across North Carolina to discuss their research and solicit their participation in several center-based initiatives, including the development of the next generation of hazard scholars and practitioners, joint research projects, the exploration of a pan-university degree program in natural hazards management, and the creation of a state natural hazards and disasters data repository.

Hurricane Katrina Five Years LaterThe Hurricane Katrina event, hosted in September 2010,

will emphasize the role of the humanities in explaining and understanding the impact this disaster had on the people of the Gulf Coast. Specific activities include a photographic exhibit of New Orleans after the storm, live music, storytelling, and speakers from New Orleans and coastal Mississippi who were instrumental in helping their communities recover.


Data Intensive Cyber Environments CenterReagan Moore, Director

The Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) Center at Carolina is an interdisciplinary community of scholars and

science and technology experts who have come together to address two overarching, interrelated challenges in today’s digital world:

The need to share and collaborate with growing digital data •collections to solve urgent problems in science, medicine, and other areas for North Carolina and beyond. The need to preserve our North Carolina and national digital •history long-term, to ensure society’s “memory” is accessible to future generations. To make this possible, the DICE Center is building on

internationally recognized experience and software cyber-infrastructure to accomplish the following:

Develop an interdisciplinary model for a campuswide data-•management cyberinfrastructure. Collaborate with groups across the UNC system on issues of •distributed data sharing and management, digital preservation, data intensive computing, digital library systems, and data curation.Sustain national and international leadership in innovating •new approaches for sharing and integrating data through federation or interconnection of previously stand-alone repositories.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearThe DICE Center is collaborating with multiple groups at

Carolina to link data repositories across the UNC system and the state to make them accessible and easy to use for researchers, businesses, and the government. Highlights include the following:

The DICE Center released version 2.4.1 of the iRODS •integrated Rule-Oriented Data Grid, which provides advanced features including support for extensible metadata tables,enforcingstoragequotas,andsoft-linksbetweendatagrids.DICE Center faculty published a textbook on policy-based •data management, iRODS Primer: Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System. It is available through the Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services at more than 300 universities.DICE Center faculty created a new class on policy-based •data management at the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) for the 2010 spring semester, based on the iRODS Primer textbook.More than 10 DICE Center iRODS-based data grids and •preservation environments are being installed at Carolina. The UNC-based Carolina Digital Repository went into •production April 4, 2010, with a preservation environment based on iRODS. And a TUCASI Infrastructure Project data grid was established between NC State University and the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI).

The DICE Center iRODS open source software is gaining •wider use. One thousand different projects downloaded the software this year, and the rate of software downloads is increasing with each successive version.The DICE Center began a collaboration with SILS to •develop a LifeTime Learning Digital Library for students. This will serve as a “personal digital library” or data archive fordigitalmaterialacquiredandcreatedbystudentsduringtheir education. This approach enables students to organize, manage, and preserve a reference collection to use in their professional careers. The initial goal is to provide up to a terabyte of storage for each student, and maintain the collection for five years. This will form a “digital bridge” back to UNC for students after graduation, and will allow them to keep using and updating their collections in continuing education. This initiative can serve as the foundation for a full education cyberinfrastructure at Carolina.The DICE Center submitted a full National Science •Foundation (NSF) DataNet proposal for the DataNet Federation Consortium. This project, if funded, will begin the formation of national data infrastructure, and the DICE Center and RENCI will serve as a hub for federation, or sharing of data, between data grids. At Carolina, the proposal also involves Information Technology Services, the Carolina Digital Repository, SILS, the Odum Institute, and RENCI. As a key step toward enabling researchers to share data •between currently stand-alone digital repositories, the DICE Center data grid at RENCI was connected, or federated, with a data grid at the National Climatic Data Center, the Ocean Observatories Data Grid, and a CUAHSI data grid, all of which are based on DICE Center iRODS infrastructure.DICE Center faculty and researchers published or submitted •more than 30 papers and gave more than 20 presentations to broaden impact and collaborations.

Climate data gathered by ocean-crossing underwater gliders will flow to the national Climatic Data Center repository in north Carolina. this is possible thanks to “federation,” connecting formerly isolated repositories using the DICe Center’s advanced software iRoDS. Image: RuCool.


Goals for the Coming Academic YearThe DICE Center will implement, if awarded, the DataNet •Federation Consortium Proposal. The proposal addresses all phases of the data life cycle, sustainability of reference collections, and use of research data within classrooms. The project includes participation by Duke, the University of South Carolina, Drexel University, the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, the National Climatic Data Center, and the University of California, San Diego.

The DICE Center will work with the TUCASI Infrastructure •Project to make the important digital resource of LiDAR topography data available to NC State, Duke, and Carolina, as well as orthophotographic images for the entire State of North Carolina.The DICE Center will seek collaborations with Data Direct •Network on integration of cloud storage with institutional repositories through the iRODS data grid, broadening access to key infrastructure services.The DICE team will continue to release new versions of •iRODS,addingadvancedfeaturesrequiredbytheNationalClimatic Data Center, Institute of the Environment, NCB-Prepared, and multiple other projects at Carolina and in the state.The DICE Center will continue collaborations with national •and international partners on research and development of data intensive cyber environments. This includes projects in the United Kingdom (Sustaining Heritage Access through Multivalent ArchiviNg), France (IN2P3, French National Library), Australia (Australian Research Collaboration Service), Japan (KeK), and elsewhere. National projects include the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative and the NSF Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center.The DICE Center will continue to expand collaborations and •provide help with the data-management needs of the Carolina community and communities across North Carolina. The DICE Center will teach classes on data grids in SILS and •provide other educational opportunities.The DICE Center will support the implementation of the •LifeTime Learning Library initiative in SILS and broaden participation in this initiative by other Carolina centers.

In one of the largest earthquake computations ever, researchers at the Southern California earthquake Center simulated a Magnitude 8 earthquake. the simulations generate hundreds of thousands of gigabytes of data. these massive data collections are managed using the DICe Center-developed software iRoDS. Image: SCeC.


Frank Porter Graham Child Development InstituteSam Odom, Director

The mission of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG), a multidisciplinary institute at the University

of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is to cultivate and share knowledge that enhances child development and family well-being. At FPG we recognize that every child deserves a safe, healthy, and stimulating childhood. Our work is dedicated to making this a reality for all children. FPG scientists study important issues facing children, individuals with disabilities, and their families, and use this information to enhance policy and improve practice. Our goal is to ensure that all children have a strong foundation for academic success and full participation as caring and responsible citizens of a multicultural world.

Since 1966, FPG research, outreach, technical assistance, and service have shaped how the nation cares for and educates young children. About 300 researchers, outreach and technical assistance specialists, staff, and students work on over 60 projects related to young children, individuals with disabilities, and their families. We also have a nationally accredited child-care center that serves about 80 families with young children, including those with disabilities and those at risk for later school problems. FPG’s dedication to research and outreach is embodied in our slogan—“Advancingknowledge, Enhancing lives”—and is evident throughout ourwork.

FPG is linked with multiple academic departments on campus. Many investigators are adjunct faculty, and over 20 Carolina faculty members are fellows at FPG working on various grants. FPG is affiliated with the following Carolina schools and departments: the College of Arts and Sciences (including anthropology, linguistics, psychology); the School of Education; the School of Medicine (including audiology, medicine, maternal and child health, occupational science, psychiatry, speech and hearing sciences); School of Public Health (including biostatistics); and the School of Social Work. We also collaborate with several other units on campus, such as the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, the Center for Developmental Science, and the Carolina Center for Genome Science.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearFPG had a very productive year. FPG investigators and fellows

were awarded 88 new, supplemental, and continuing grants in the past year. About 60 percent of those were from federal agencies (including the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services); about 14 percent were from private foundations (including the W. K. Kellogg Foundation); and 8 percent were from states. FPG’s awards for the past year were $29,379,324.

FPG investigators mentored over 90 undergraduate and graduate students and employed 30 undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. In the past year, FPG

was awarded two postdoctoral training grants from the U.S. Department of Education: one to support fellowships in early childhood education sciences and the other to support post-doctoral training in special education research.

In 2008-09, FPG investigators created a strategic plan to guide our work for the next five years. The plan is organized into seven areas of emphasis. Examples of FPG’s work this past year in each of these areas are provided below.

Developmental disabilitiesFPG investigators have continued to refine and evaluate the

Recognition and Response: Response to Intervention Model for early childhood, which is designed to help early childhood teachers recognize children who show signs of early learning difficulty and to provide targeted interventions that are matched to the learning needs of children ages three through five. FPG is also leading the Communication and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Project (CNDP), a group of multidisciplinary studies investigating the speech, language, and social-behavioral profiles that define different developmental disabilities. The CNDP studies focus on autism spectrum disorders, fragile X syndrome, and Down syndrome, and investigate the neuropsychological, genetic, and environmental features that may be associated with the behavioral and cognitive profiles of these different groups. FPG investigators are also comparing the effectiveness of two treatment approaches for young children with autism. The Spring 2010 issue of FPG’s national magazine, Early Developments, highlighted our work on autism spectrum disorders.

Early care and educationFPG received a $4 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg

Foundation to support FirstSchool, a systems-based change approach for educating and caring for children ages 3 to 8. FirstSchool has worked closely with four N.C. schools and will work with four Michigan schools. During the past year, FPG also launched a new infant-toddler initiative with a working meeting of national experts in child health and development to lay the groundwork for the next generation of infant-toddler care and

one of the goals for the Center for early Care and education Research: Dual language learners is to improve early care and education practices for dual language learners from birth through five years of age.


intervention for children raised in poverty and their families. A forthcoming book will highlight the research and practice implications to promote young children’s physical health and cognitive, language, and socio-emotional development.

International initiativeFPG has developed a collaborative partnership with

ChildFund International and has received a grant to work together to strengthen the early child development component of ChildFund’s work in communities across the globe. FPG will provide assistance on evidence-based practices, measurement, and program implementation strategies. FPG investigators also began planning a Global Implementation Conference (www.implementationconference.org) to bring together experts from around the world to promote the science and practice of implementation and system transformation in human services.

Professional development and technical assistanceFPG continued to provide national leadership through

two national professional development centers (the National Professional Development Center on Inclusion and the National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders) and one national technical assistance center (the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center). All are funded by the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education.

Physical and social healthFPG investigators have evaluated the impacts of participation

in the Special Olympics Young Athletes program on the development of youth and their families. Investigators are also developing the Young Athletes Curriculum to support children’s motor, communication, and social skills. Also, the Office of Disability and Health, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, continues its professional development and research related to a range of health issues for individuals with disabilities.

Race, ethnicity, linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic diversityFPG was awarded a three-year $4.5 million cooperative

agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to launch the Center for Early Care and Education Research: Dual Language Learners. The new center is designed to improve assessment and early care and education practices for dual language learners from birth through five years of age through research and national leadership activities.

Social policy and evaluation FPG has been conducting the evaluation of Educare, an

early childhood care and education model implemented in 9 sites, expanding to 12 in 2010-11. This past year, the Educare evaluation team released important findings and began planning a randomized trial of the program’s effectiveness. Within North

Carolina, the Department of Public Instruction announced this year that it will use FPG’s FirstSchool framework for Pre-K through 3rd grade education to guide its reorganization of the department. At the request of theN.C.Governor’sOffice,FPG helped develop North Carolina’s plans and application for federal funding to support the creation and implementation of the Early Childhood Advisory Council, which will help build a comprehensive, integrated system of services for young children and their families.

Professional and public engagementFPG investigators are leaders in their respective fields, and

their work is recognized within their profession and by the broader public. FPG’s work continues to be published in the most respected journals and publications in the field. In the past year, FPG investigators published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, reports, books, and chapters. Investigators made over 300 presentations at various international, national, and state meetings. FPG investigators served as journal editors and associate/managerial editors for Child Development, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Journal of Early Intervention, and others, as well as in leadership positions of national organizations (including the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Division of Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children).

As another example of FPG’s leadership in the early childhood and early childhood special education professions, the National Professional Development Center on Inclusion, based at FPG, workedwithtwonationalorganizations—theDivisionforEarlyChildhood of the Council for Exceptional Children and the NationalAssociation for theEducation ofYoungChildren—todevelop a position statement on early childhood inclusion.

Publically, FPG’s projects and experts were cited this past year in national media outlets including the New York Times, ABCNews.com and Education Week. FPG investigators also continued to serve as a valuable resource on early childhood issues for regional and local news media, including Atlanta Journal Constitution, the News & Observer, Carolina Parent, Triangle Business Journal, and the Charlotte Observer.

Much of FPG’s work has been shared via print, video, podcasts, webinars, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. In the last year, over 1 million people visited the FPG website (www.fpg.unc.edu). The monograph Implementation Research: A Synthesis of the Literature has been downloaded more than 200,000 times. The monograph identifies what it will take to transmit innovative programs and practices to mental health, social services, juvenile justice, education, early childhood education, employment services, and substance abuse prevention and treatment.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearFPG will continue to inform science and practice related

to serving young children and their families in our community, state, nation, and world. More specific goals related to each of the emphasis areas are delineated in FPG’s strategic plan.


teenager interviews to similar information that will be collected from a group of teens licensed under the new system.

Applying HSRC safety expertise in Chapel Hill HSRC also worked to support pedestrian and bicycle safety

in its North Carolina home of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and at the University of North Carolina campus. In the study Identifying and Prioritizing Locations for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Improvements in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, North Carolina, prepared for the NCDOT, HSRC researchers worked to identify locations in Chapel Hill and Carrboro that would benefit from pedestrian or bicycle safety improvements. One such improvement was the installation during the summer of 2010 of seven midblock crosswalks along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and East Franklin Street. The crossings also incorporate median islands to allow pedestrians to cross one direction of traffic at a time and warning signs to make drivers aware of the crossings and the need to watch for pedestrians.

Developing a national curriculum University instructors who want to incorporate bicycle- and

pedestrian-specific concepts into their graduate transportation-planning programs can now access a full set of materials developed by the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC), a national center housed within HSRC. PBIC staff developed the 3-credit, graduate-level course with funding from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The course was taught in 2009 within UNC’s Department of City and Regional Planning, and will be offered in spring 2011 as well.

This interdisciplinary course explores the core concepts related to creating and evaluating effective and comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian plans and programs. The free modular course materials can be integrated individually into existing courses to fit the needs of the students or the academic program. To register for course materials, please visit www.walkinginfo.org/training/university-courses/masters-course.cfm.

Highway Safety Research CenterDavid L. Harkey, Director

T he mission of the Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC) at the University of North Carolina is to conduct

interdisciplinary research and develop programs aimed at reducing deaths, injuries, and related societal costs of roadway crashes in North Carolina and the nation. HSRC research affects anyone who travels, regardless of mode.

Major Accomplishments During the Past Year HSRC continued to advance road safety through the execution

of research that addresses engineering and social and behavioral issues; development of resources for practitioners, including training courses and informational websites; and participation on various boards and committees to guide public policies and direct future research. HSRC continued to work closely with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), and other public agencies, as well as with private organizations.

Enhancing state Graduated Driver Licensing systemsHSRC was awarded a contract from the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide assistance to states that are interested in upgrading their Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) systems. The project involves working closely with state coalitions to bolster the quality of their young-driver licensingsystems in ways that are known to improve teen-driver safety.

The process takes stakeholder groups through steps outlined in a GDL planning guide that was developed by the CDC with input from young-driver researchers from HSRC and elsewhere. Assistance is being offered to a small number of states whose GDL systems have known shortcomings and where there is an existing group or coalition that has an interest in this issue. As states work through the guide, HSRC researchers offer on-call assistance in tackling the individual issues of each partner state. These issues can include local data collection and analysis, designing surveys of parents, networking with additional state and national experts, and explaining GDL to legislators.

HSRC researchers also expanded their work in teen-driver research to the state of Kansas. Researchers worked with the AAA Kansas Traffic Safety Committee to find out whether parents of youngdriversinKansas—particularlyinruralareas—approvedofseveral integral elements of GDL. Study results indicate that both parents and teens approve of the kinds of protective restrictions that characterize GDL systems and that those living in the most rural areas were as supportive as those who live in more urban areas. AAA Kansas shared the results of the study with the public, the media, and legislators to encourage adoption of GDL in Kansas. In February 2009, a GDL bill was passed in the Kansas legislature that went into effect January 1, 2010. Researchers at HSRC’s Center for the Study of Young Drivers plan to examine the effects of this new licensing system in 2011and 2012, including comparing some of the data obtained from this past round of

HSRC research helped lead to pedestrian safety improvements in Chapel Hill, including this mid-block crosswalk along Martin luther King, Jr. Boulevard.


Supporting national road-safety guidance During this year, HSRC established the Crash Modification

Factors (CMF) Clearinghouse, a central, web-based repository of crash modification factors. These factors assist transportation engineers in making safety improvement decisions. The establishment of the clearinghouse supports a newly released, national transportation-engineering publication: the Highway Safety Manual (HSM). The HSM will assist highway agencies as they consider improvements to existing roadways and as they are planning, designing, or constructing new roadways. The publication of the HSM is the result of a decade of research and development efforts from a variety of organizations and agencies, including HSRC.

Developed with funding from the U.S. DOT Federal Highway Administration, the clearinghouse provides transportation professionals with a regularly updated, online database of CMFs, a mechanism for sharing newly developed CMFs, and educational information on the proper application of CMFs. For more information, please visit www.CMFclearinghouse.org.

International outreach HSRC continued to expand its international presence to

contribute road safety knowledge at the global level. A delegation of emergency medical professionals from the Republic of Turkmenistan visited HSRC in October 2009. During a visit sponsored by the Community Connections program of the International Affairs Council, the delegation shared road safety issues from their country and heard from HSRC researchers about U.S. conditions and approaches to various aspects of road

safety, including infrastructure design and operations, occupant protection programs, licensing of young drivers, and programs to protect pedestrians.

HSRC director David Harkey returned to the United Arab Emirates once again to provide the United States perspective on road safety at the International Symposium on the Role of Road Safety Councils and National Committees. Harkey presented “Road Safety in the United States: A Shared Responsibility,” discussing the roles of multiple stakeholders in the United States that are charged with creating and maintaining a safe road environment.

HSRC associate director Charlie Zegeer served as a keynote speaker at the 2010 International Conference on Safety and Mobility of Vulnerable Road Users in Jerusalem, Israel. Zegeer presented “Pedestrian Crashes and Treatments from Around the World,” discussing pedestrian safety statistics at the global and regional levels and the relationships between design, engineering treatments, and pedestrian safety.

Goals for the Coming Academic Year Continue to conduct research in the areas of social/behavioral •science, engineering, and public health as related to highway safety. Continue to disseminate research results to practitioners •and the general public through peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, workshops and training courses, e-newsletters and listservs, websites, and the media.Continue to explore interdisciplinary opportunities to address •highway safety issues through increased collaboration with other UNC departments and centers and other institutions in the UNC system.Continue to provide research opportunities for graduate •students, sustain the postdoctoral and scholarship programs, and explore further opportunities to develop the next generation of highway safety professionals.Continue to explore opportunities to conduct road safety •research and disseminate existing highway safety knowledge in other nations.Expand the capabilities of the center through increased •training and new hires to focus on emerging areas in the field of highway safety. Expand our involvement in national agencies’ and professional •organizations’ advisory and technical boards, committees, task forces, and panels to help influence the national research agenda.

Center researchers met with a delegation of emergency medical professionals from the Republic of turkmenistan in october 2009.


Injury Prevention Research CenterCarol Runyan, Director

T he mission of the Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC) at Carolina is to build the field of injury prevention and

control through a combination of interdisciplinary scholarly approaches to research, intervention, and evaluation, as well as through the training of the next generation of researchers and practitioners. IPRC also stresses translational research and dissemination activities to advance the prevention of injury and violence at multiple levels.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearImpact on policy

State impact: Carol Runyan and Kimberly Rauscher provided informationattherequestoftheNorthCarolinaChildFatalityTask Force about the hazards associated with youth work, while the General Assembly deliberated legislation that, once passed, increased penalties for businesses that violate child labor laws.

National impact: A paper published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (July 2010) by Carol Runyan, with colleagues from seven other injury centers, makes the case for congressional appropriations to increase attention to injury control and will be used to support advocacy efforts to build the field.

Global impact: A team of international researchers led by Desmond Runyan (social medicine and pediatrics) and Adam Zolotor (family medicine) along with Queensland University of Technology, the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, and the United Nations Children’s Fund, developed and pilot-tested a series of international child-abuse screening tools (ICAST). The instruments allow lower- to middle-income countries to collect data on violence against children to drive policy and monitor policy effectiveness over time. A series of papers appeared in 2009 in Child Abuse & Neglect.

Impact on injury and violence practiceLocal impact: Participants in the Center’s PREVENT

training program are influencing state and local policy throughout the United States. For example, a team from Ohio successfully advocated for legislation to ban corporal punishment in schools.

State impact: IPRC has successfully launched the $7 million Keeping Babies Safe in North Carolina project, a statewide collaborative effort to prevent shaken baby syndrome (SBS). Under the leadership of Desmond Runyan (social medicine and pediatrics) and the Center for Child and Family Health, the project consists of delivering the Period of PURPLE Crying program to the parents of every child born in North Carolina for a period of five years, beginning in 2008. The program is being implemented in 86 participating hospitals in the state. Additionally, the project team has launched a statewide public media campaign, including radio spots and public service announcements carried out by the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome and Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Vangie Foshee (health behavior and health education) has

initiated research to adapt an evaluated program on dating violence (Families for Safe Dates) to be culturally appropriate for a Latino audience. Foshee and her team are also developing and evaluating a culturally appropriate, family-based program to prevent dating abuse among Latino teens.

National impact: Carri Casteel (epidemiology) is leading translational research that employs an evidence-based robbery- and violence-prevention program delivered to businesses through law enforcement agencies. Her team is working with police departments in California, Nevada, and Iowa to deliver a crime-prevention program to small businesses with the intent of creating a model that can be adopted by cities through community-based agencies.

Global impact: Andrés Villaveces (epidemiology) is collaborating with the University of El Valle, Cali, Colombia. He is evaluating the physical characteristics of 20 urban areas in Colombia to determine their association with the occurrence of pedestrian injuries.

Building the field IPRC is leading several efforts to build the injury field at the

campus, state, and national levels.Campus-level efforts:

The center is offering a one-credit undergraduate course •on injury control for the first time in fall 2010. The center continues to teach third-year medical students as part of a requiredsurgeryrotation.Carol Runyan and Matt Pierce are studying campus safety at •Carolina to understand the potential influence of criminal background checks at admission.Kevin Guskiewicz (exercise and sports science) has been •named director of Carolina’s newly christened Matthew Alan Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, building on his IPRC-funded concussion research.

State-level efforts: IPRC is collaborating with state organizations on a range of •

purple hand-knitted caps for newborns were used in hospitals across north Carolina during the Week of the Young Child. the period of puRple Crying program is the primary component of IpRC’s Keeping Babies Safe in north Carolina project.


activities that will have significant impact for North Carolina. These include the following:Carol Runyan worked with the North Carolina Institute of •Medicine (NCIOM) Prevention Task Force and both she and Karen Moore participated in developing the state’s five-year injury and violence prevention plan. The center will play a key role in guiding the research and training goals, and we hope to have the legislative support that was recommended by the NCIOM.Under the leadership of Susan Ennett (health behavior and •health education), the center is evaluating training programs on youth-suicide prevention that are being delivered to school nurses, social workers, teachers, and counselors in 103 schools across 21 counties, including Alamance/Burlington, Anson, Bertie, Caldwell, Duplin, Durham, Forsyth, Greene, Halifax, Hoke, Hyde, Martin, McDowell, Nash/Rocky Mount, Pamlico, Person, Richmond, Scotland, Swain, Vance, and Wayne.

National-level efforts: The center has continued the PREVENT (Preventing Violence •through Education, Networking and Technical Assistance) program to build professional capacity in the primary prevention of violence; more than 900 violence-prevention professionals have now been trained through the program in principles of public health and primary prevention with funding from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Doris Duke Charitable Trust. The center is collaborating with the U.S. Indian Health Service, the U.S. Air Force, and with N.C. trauma centers and health departments to conduct a series of needs assessments to identify the current training and educational needs of practitioners; this will help guide future adult-education/skill-building opportunities in injury and violence prevention.

The NC-ACE, North Carolina Academic Center for •Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention, was established with a nearly 6.5$ grant from the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Led by Paul Smokowski (School of Social Work), the center is a multidisciplinary collaboration between the School of Social Work, IPRC, and community agencies in Robeson County, North Carolina. Bruce Cairns and Anthony Charles (Department of •Surgery) and Andrés Villaveces (epidemiology) proposed an international training center on injury control in Malawi, building on collaborative work with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Disease in the School of Medicine. If funded, this work would begin in fall 2010.

Core faculty achievementsCarri Casteel received the Seminal Research Publication •Award from the Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Research for the following article: Casteel C., Peek-Asa C., Greenland S., Chu LD, and Kraus J.F. “Effectiveness of a workplace violence intervention in small retail and service establishments.” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 50(12) (2008):1365-1370. Krista Perreira received the 2010 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman •Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement for her scholarship on Latino populations and immigration.Andrés Villaveces received the Publication of the Year Award of •the American Society for Information Science & Technology and Special Interest Group for International Information Issues for the article, “Information Visualization Services in a Library? A Public Health Case Study,” and the entire issue of Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 35(5) (June/July 2009): 13-18.Adam Zolotor received the UNC School of Medicine’s James •W. Woods Junior Faculty Award, which supports promising young members of the medical school’s clinical faculty early in their academic careers.

Goals for the Coming Academic Year Advance the science of injury control by conducting and •supporting innovative research projects and enhancing translation of findings to prevention practice among new and existing Carolina investigators on topics of major national and international significance.Expand and enhance our national and international leadership •in training the next generation of researchers and practitioners through on-campus efforts. Develop, conduct, evaluate, and disseminate injury control •program and policy interventions in collaboration with partners at local, state, tribal, national, and international levels.Enhance the long-term sustainability of the center through •sound management practices and continuous qualityimprovement that facilitateshighproductivity,quality, andefficiency in our research, education, and outreach efforts.

Research led by Carol Runyan explores how to make work safer for young people.


Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience, and TechnologyJ. M. DeSimone, C. L. Donley, M. G. Forest, and R. K. Pinschmidt, Directors

T he mission of the Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology (IAM) is to serve the people of

North Carolina and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill while pursuing the following goals:

Create a new multidisciplinary science research institute across •boundaries where traditional sciences meet new disciplines such as polymer materials, nanoscience, complex fluids, and nanobiomedical engineering. Develop new educational opportunities for Carolina graduate •and undergraduate students in the multidisciplinary areas of advanced materials science and nanoscience to complement and extend the activities of the Curriculum in Applied Sciences and Engineering (CASE).Increase Carolina materials sciences instrumentation resources •by expanding and managing a shared research facility for nanoscience, advanced materials, and nanomedicine research.Encourage economic and technological development of •Carolina research discoveries in advanced materials science and nanotechnology.Provide world-class infrastructure (e.g., shared instrument-•ation) for broader collaborations with North Carolina State University, Duke, and other North Carolina universities through distributed centers and other institutes.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearExtramural research support

The primary metric for IAM’s success is externally sponsored research support. IAM faculty and leadership participated in several large center awards, including the following:

The five-year $17.5 million Department of Energy (DOE) •Energy Frontiers Research Center (EFRC) program in Solar Fuels and Next Generation Photovoltaics. Tom Meyer is primary principal investigator (PI) and Joe DeSimone, Rene Lopez, Wei You, six IAM affiliates, and researchers at NC State, Duke, NC Central, and Florida are also participating.The Carolina Center of Nanotechnology Excellence is funded •by the National Cancer Institute for $18.9 million. Nancy Allbritton, Joe DeSimone, Greg Forest, and Mike Ramsey participated in this project.The North Carolina University Cancer Research Fund, already •valued at $50 million, supported research by the Allbritton, DeSimone, and Ramsey groups.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National •Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) supported the Virtual Lung Project ($3.6 million) and continued to fund Greg Forest and IAM affiliates Superfine, Rubinstein, Camassa, and Mitran.

IAM faculty also garnered many individual awards:DeSimone won a $500,000 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award •for the delivery of biological therapeutics using engineered particles and novel delivery methods. Other awards included Office of Naval Research (ONR) funding for marine antifouling coatings and three NIH grants for red-blood-cell mimics for oxygen therapy ($490,000) and CD8 and T-cell targeting ($50,000).Allbritton is part of five continuing and one new individual •and small-group NIH grants totaling $6.8 million over six years for her work in culturing and analyzing cells for cancer research.Ramsey had many continuing grants originally totaling some •$12 million, as well as a new $1.3 million joint grant with Sorin Mitran from UT-Battelle for their work in microfluidics and high throughput assays.Meyer’s DOE and National Science Foundation (NSF) grants •for work in solar fuels won renewals ($1.129 million). He also had Army Research Office (ARO) funding for oxygen activation (four-year $830,000) and $1,093 million over five years as a co-PI in a University of Virginia EFRC.Forest won new grants from NSF, ARO, ONR, and DOE •worth $567,000 over three years for mathematical modeling and simulations of complex fluids in material science and biology, in addition to the NIH and NIEHS funding for the Virtual Lung Project.You won a five-year $490,000 NSF CAREER Award for •polymers for organic solar cells and research and training grants from NSF, ONR, the American Chemical Society (ACS), and NC State totaling $282,000 over four years. Peter Mucha continued his five-year $432,000 NSF CAREER •Award in fluids and solids modeling and participated in several other large four-year NIH and NSF grants.Rene Lopez is a co-PI on a new three-year $1.3 million NSF grant• with Ed Samulski and Sorin Mitran on electrophotonic devices.

entries for CHAnl’s second annual scientific art competition came from students and faculty across the university. Above, “the trompetenblume,” by Joseph DeSimone, Holger Misslitz, and Hans-Werner Schmidt, is a self-assembled benzene trisamide microstructure. Misslitz and Schmidt are macromolecular chemists at the university of Bayreuth.


Recruitment and integration of key staff and facultyExpiration of funding and generally tight budgets led IAM

to cut its finance and grants-management staff and activities and move residual work into a Unified Business Cluster at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI). A second year of salary support for our User Community Support Coordinator allowed us to enhance user training, instrument maintenance, and advertising of the Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory’s (CHANL) capabilities; growth in user fees is allowing us to continue support for this position next year. An experienced clean-room manager was successfully recruited from Vanderbilt University and has allowed us to considerably expand services and usage of the clean room, including its photolithography, etch, and depositionequipmentforfabrication.Nonrecurringfundingfromthe Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development will allow us to hire a lab tech for one year to help with this effort. CHANL also added a work-study student.

Following an in-depth internal evaluation, efforts led by IAM joint faculty members Nancy Allbritton and Robert Dennis have reinvigorated the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the graduate and undergraduate levels. CASE Biomedical Engineering faculty searches were reinitiated and Ted Bateman and Anne Taylor were hired. A third, senior-level offer has been accepted and the start-up package will provide several pieces of additionalequipmenttoCHANL.

Physical build-out of IAM and CHANL in the Science ComplexUnused contingency funds are allowing completion of 600

square feet of IAM shell-space for decompressing current labsand for new controlled atmosphere glove boxes to enable solar collector device fabrication. This up-fit is nearly complete. IAM hasalsobeenallottedmuch-neededgrowthspace—modules fortwolabsandthreeoffices(1,500squarefeet)—inChapmanHallafter the Marine Sciences Department moves to the new Venable Hall labs. The growing need for additional clean-room space, preferablyadjacenttothecurrentfacility,willrequiresignificantnew funds, not currently identified.

CHANL’s growing resources serve an ever-expanding user base. CHANL now has 18major pieces of equipment and sixsupport tools in 3,700 square feet, and serves about 250 usersevery year in more than 60 research groups, including groups from Carolina, other universities, and industry. CHANL’s completed clean room and other facilities allow us to advertise to an expanded clientele. Users now come not only from our traditional base of chemistry and physics researchers, but also from the Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy, biomedical engineering, marine sciences, and environmental science and engineering. EFRC has committed to provide funds for a new energy dispersive spectrometer for one of our TEMs.

Leadership, outreach, and new initiatives

Other important metrics for IAM’s success are leadership in the Carolina community, outreach to the broader community, and the launching of new interdisciplinary initiatives.

Two core IAM hires, Nancy Albritton and Peter Mucha, were •named chairs of the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics, respectively.IAM partnered with and helped create the Solar Energy •

Research Center (SERC). SERC (http://www.serc.unc.edu/index.html), with IAM support, held its second annual symposium, “Solar Fuels and Energy Storage, the Unmet Needs,” in January; the event included 12 nationally prominent speakers and a poster session. SERC, with strong IAM efforts and other supporters, held its first public outreach, “A Sustainable Energy Future - Mapping the Way: A Public Dialog on Issues and Needs” (http://www.serc.unc.edu/outreach.pdf ) as part of the symposium; the event included 34 posters and displays and a panel discussion keynoted by Joe Hackney, the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives. About 300 people attended. You, Samulski, and Ashby organized a highly successful •eighth National Graduate Research Polymer Conference at UNC in June under the aegis of the ACS Polymer Division. This event attracted over 200 graduate students from across the United States.IAM affiliate Michael Rubinstein led the IAM-supported •Second Annual Triangle Soft Matter Workshop in materials, attracting over 120 students and faculty from the three Triangle universities and other regional institutions. Carolina’s Energy & Environment Council (EEC), a joint •initiative between IAM and the UNC Institute for the Environment (IfE), co-organized and hosted monthly meetings with outside and internal speakers in related topics for four Carolina Energy and three Progress Energy Fellows. This year’s visitors included speakers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Electric Power Research Institute, the DOE Office of Science, Duke University, the North Carolina Energy Department, and three alternative-energy-related companies. The EEC continues its active role in the Research Triangle Energy Consortium, composed of UNC, Duke, NC State and the Research Triangle Institute. IAM participated in attempts to create a new statewide •Environmentally Responsible Commercialization of Nanotechnology organization. Planning continues on a possible trade association as a first step. IAM also supported and displayed at the March North Carolina Nanotechnology Commercialization Conference. CHANL held its second Open House and Scientific Art •contest (with 56 entries) in April. IAM staff, faculty, and students participated with Morehead •

the national Institutes of Health awarded $490,000 to Joe DeSimone to create red-blood-cell mimics for oxygen therapy.


Planetarium and others in a successful NanoDays community outreach in March. You and graduate students presented lectures and tours on •polymer solar cells to Climate LEAP (Leadership and Energy Awareness Program) high-school students and teachers.The student Materials Research Society chapter (with IAM •support) held a successful recruiting drive and held well-attended lunchtime literature reviews and Carolina research highlights. They will also host a prominent materials scientist at Carolina this academic year.

Goals for the Coming Academic Year• Continuetosupportanddrivefunding-proposaldevelopment

at single-investigator and center levels.• Continue to lead community building initiatives at

Carolina.• ContinuejointseminarswiththeDepartmentsofChemistry,

Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics and Astronomy, as well as with the IfE and Health Affairs units. Begin a new, high-visibility Leaders in Material Science seminar series (two per year).

• Completeup-fitofanewCHANLlabtorelievecrowdingandinstall controlled atmosphere boxes for making solar devices; renovate new lab space on the third floor of Chapman Hall.

• Initiate new short courses run through CHANL that willfocus on the theory and practice behind using CHANL equipment.

• Continue to explore possible joint memoranda ofunderstanding with other international research university institutes for faculty-student joint research and/or sabbatical exchanges.

• ContinuetoworkwithIfEandtheKenan-FlaglerBusinessSchool to launch a new Energy Research Consortium to integrate basic, medical, and energy sciences with public policy and commercial development.

• As funding allows, work with the departments and theuniversity to launch searches for faculty to be appointed jointly with IAM; priorities will be theory and computation in soft matter with the Department of Mathematics and a solar device fabrication specialist for EFRC.

• Completerotationofthecurrentdirector-andcodirectorshipsto other IAM faculty.


Providing national leadership in agingPeggye Dilworth-Anderson, interim codirector of IOA, was

inducted as the new president of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) at the organization’s 62nd annual meeting on November 22, 2009, in Atlanta, Georgia. GSA has 5,200 members from 40 countries, and is the oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. Dilworth-Anderson also received the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Award during the seventh Annual Alzheimer’s Gala held on March 7, 2010, in Washington, D.C. This honor is reserved for those who make significant advancements in Alzheimer’s disease research.

Expanding research and dissemination activities Since July 1, 2009, IOA has been awarded $1.3 million in

new funding. Grant expenditures during fiscal year 2009-2010 totaled $1.69 million, up from $1.37 million last year. We have 6 contracts and grants in submission to federal, state, and local agencies for a total of $2.64 million.

IOA’s reputation as a leader in the field of aging continues to grow. During the 2009-2010 academic year, IOA researchers published 89 aging-related, peer-reviewed articles or book chapters, created 20 reports or other deliverables, and produced 13 translational research tools/workshops. IOA researchers gave over 90 presentations or workshops in national, state, regional, and local venues. IOA’s website averaged approximately 158,700 pageviews per month, an increase of approximately 46 percent from the previous year.

Over 200 faculty, staff, and students attended the fifth annual Aging Exchange in September, 2009. The event featured 40 student and faculty posters illustrating aging research from a multitude of disciplines. During the Aging Exchange, we presented the 2009 Gordon H. DeFriese Career Development in Aging Research staff award to Jennifer Craft Morgan, Associate Director for Research at IOA, and the doctoral student award to Susan Fletcher in the School of Social Work.

Collaborating to support research, education, and serviceIOA researchers have developed a variety of tools and training

resources for providers in public health and aging that are being

Institute on AgingM. A. Altpeter, P. Dilworth-Anderson, M. H. Palmer, Interim Codirectors

T he mission of the Institute on Aging (IOA) is to enhance the well-being of older adults in North Carolina by fostering

statewide collaborations in research, education, and service.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearPreparing North Carolina for an aging population

IOA is a key leader in the state’s planning and preparation for the aging of baby boomers and the growing number of older adults. As directed by Senate Bill 195 (Session Law 2009-407) and Governor Perdue’s Executive Order No. 54, IOA and the N.C. Division of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS) are working together to support this effort through several initiatives, including the following:• ThroughcollaborationwiththeOfficeoftheGovernorand

her Advisory Council on Aging, DAAS, and the state’s 17 Area Agencies on Aging, IOA cosponsored six governor’s policy roundtables across the state between April and June, 2010. The roundtables focused on the overall theme, “Building a Livable and Senior Friendly North Carolina,” and engaged a diverse group of over 600 stakeholders. Mary Altpeter, Jennifer Craft Morgan, and Peter Stein from IOA presented keynote remarks for three of the roundtables, and Bill Lamb provided managerial support for each of the six events. Each roundtable addressed a specific subtheme; participants identified ongoing and emerging issues within each subtheme thatrequireeffectivepolicyandprogrammaticresponses.

• Informationgarneredfromtheroundtableswillbesharedatthe Governor’s Policy Conference on Aging to be held October 13-15, 2010, in Research Triangle Park. IOA supports the conference by chairing the program committee, designing the program, managing the conference website, registering attendees, spearheading fundraising, and handling all conference logistics. Attendees will be invited to participate in a systematic process to move from the identification of issues to the recommendation of specific actions that will strengthen North Carolina’s response to its aging population.

• AsaresultoftherequirementsoutlinedinGovernorPerdue’sExecutive Order No. 54, IOA, in partnership with DAAS and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Aging, surveyed 45 state agencies in summer 2010 to understand how the aging of the population is influencing plans, policies, programs, and the agency workforce. IOA developed and tested the survey, and will also be responsible for tabulating, analyzing, and reporting the survey results.

• Theinformationobtainedthroughtheaging-readinesssurveyand regional roundtables will be disseminated through IOA’s website. This information will be used to assist the state and local municipalities in addressing accessibility and service delivery for increasing numbers of older adults in North Carolina. Additionally, the results generated by the survey assessment, regional roundtables, and conference will be used by DAAS to develop the 2011-2015 State Aging Plan.

IoA interim codirector peggye Dilworth-Anderson (left) is inducted as president of the Gerontological Society of America.


widely disseminated at the local, state, and national levels. These resources include nine web-based modules on evidence-based health promotion programming for older adults; these are disseminated nationally through the National Council on Aging’s Center for Healthy Aging website. The modules are considered exemplary training tools, and the Administration on Aging is recommending them for its national evidence-based health promotion, aging, and disability resource center and its Alzheimer’s disease support and services program initiatives. IOA also developed the Healthy Aging Roadmap, an online, interactive resource for planning and implementation of healthy aging in North Carolina. The Healthy Aging Roadmap was launched in late 2009 and now features information on over 300 older adult health promotion programs across the state.

IOA is also expanding the state’s infrastructure for planning, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based health promotion programs and policies for older adults, and specifically for falls prevention. In spring 2010, four workshops were held statewide to coordinate and systematize efforts in falls prevention. These workshops, led by IOA researchers and our strategic partners, generated five new community-level falls prevention initiatives. Falls prevention educational tools developed by IOA and its partners are being disseminated by aging-services providers, emergency medical services, health-care providers, faith-based organizations, and many other groups that serve older adults.

IOA’s initiatives in the area of frontline health and health-care workforce have made an impact on workers’ job qualityand on the policies and practices of health-care employers and educational institutions locally and nationally. The WIN A STEP UP program, in partnership with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, delivered 30-contact-hour training to 61 nursing assistants and a two-day program to 89 managers from long-term care employers across the state. The WIN A STEP UP nursing-assistant training improves both clinical and interpersonal skills. To complement this program, frontline managers participate in a two-day Coaching Supervision curriculum aimed

at improving essential skills (active listening, problem solving, and self-management) of leaders. IOA researchers have published extensively on the impact of the program for national audiences (www.winastepup.org).

In terms of national relevance, the Jobs to Careers evaluation, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has worked with over 35 health-care employers and over 30 educational institutions at 17 sites in 15 states. IOA’s role is to evaluate the demonstration projects and collect the lessons learned to disseminate to both the research and practice communities. Frontline employees receive rewards for building skills and expanding knowledge necessary for their current jobs, helping them to advance to new positions. Employers build and retain talented and committed employees while bolstering a workplace culture that supports professional development, mentorship, and collaboration across the entire health-care team. IOA is disseminating findings to national associations in key target areas, including community colleges, acute-care employers, long-term care employers, and community and behavioral health employers. IOA has received funding from the Hitachi Foundation to extend these efforts by developing additional case studies of hospitals that capture both lessons learned and promising practices.

IOA’s initiatives in the area of workforce aging in librarianship have increased the capacity for workforce and educational planning in library and information science across the country. As an older-than-average profession, librarianship must have an evidence base from which to plan for an impending wave of retirements and the need for both organizational-knowledge transfer and increased workplace flexibility as workers age.

IOA was recently awarded a grant from the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program for the Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science 3 (WILIS 3): Sustaining the Career Tracking Model through Data-sharing. This project extends our current work in understanding workforce aging in library and information science (WILIS 1 & WILIS 2). This project will document the process of data archiving and how data must be prepared for public use. In addition to documentation, the project, in partnership with the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science, will create publicly accessible datasets; develop an interactive program-specific data system; and produce a data-archiving toolkit for use by other researchers.

The goals in the past year for the Center for Aging and Diversity (CAD/IOA) included continuing to support junior scientists and conducting community-based research on health disparities in later life. CAD announced a call for three pilot grant proposals for a maximum of $20,000 each (funded by the National Institute on Aging, KO7 Award, AG023113: Closing the Gap on Minority Aging and Health Research) to encourage small-scale pilot research projects that can be completed within 12 months and have the potential to lead to a larger federally or foundation-funded award application. CAD funded three junior scientists from the School of Medicine in July 2009-10, and continued to support junior scientists through a research working and mentoring group, which meets once a month and consists of four senior faculty and a diverse group of 15 junior faculty and postdoctoral students. The primary focus of the group is to provide mentoring to junior faculty and postdoctoral fellows and to mentor underrepresented minority faculty. CAD continued

the IoA cosponsored six governor’s policy roundtables across the state to identify major issues facing north Carolina’s aging population. pictured are participants at the roundtable held in Charlotte.


A team of four Carolina students completed their yearlong Master of Public Health Capstone project by working with IOA, Carolina Geriatric Education Center, and N.C. Falls Prevention Coalition to address older adult falls prevention in the state of North Carolina.

Goals for the Coming Academic Year• Analyze and disseminate data and information relevant

to Senate Bill 195 (Session Law 2009-407) and Governor Perdue’s Executive Order No. 54, “Preparing for Aging Baby Boomers,” and use this information to inform policy and plan new IOA programs.

• Leverage IOA resources to reduce dependence on state-appropriated funding.

• Enhance IOA’s work with individuals and groups withinNorth Carolina by creating and sustaining partnerships with state agencies, national organizations, and those on the Carolina campus.

to engage in community-based research that addresses medically underserved populations in North Carolina. The primary area of research is on dementia care for elders with Alzheimer’s disease and associated disorders. CAD, in collaboration with the School of Public Health, held two major research meetings with Johnson & Johnson Company and Sanofi-Aventis, US, Inc. to identify and advance aging research at Carolina. Talks with these companies are ongoing.

Preparing the next generation of leaders in aging During 2009-2010, IOA was in its second year of a five-year

renewal grant from the National Institute on Aging (grant number 5T32AG000272-08) to fund the Carolina Program in Health and Aging Research. The program assists in preparing predoctoral and postdoctoral scholars to make significant contributions to aging and health-care research through intense, guided career development. The grant supported two postdoctoral fellows and four predoctoral fellows.


Institute of Marine SciencesRick Luettich, Director

T he Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) is an off-campus research, education, and service unit of the University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill that, together with the on-campus Department of Marine Sciences, forms the UNC Marine Sciences Program. The IMS mission is to conduct high-quality, basic,and applied marine sciences research, train young scientists, and provide professional expertise and leadership in coastal marine issues. Resident faculty are: 1) addressing key scientific questions about the nature, use, enhancement, and protectionof coastal marine resources and ecosystems; 2) developing and applying technologically advanced approaches to field, laboratory, and modeling studies; 3) communicating research and new technologies to professional, governmental, and public audiences; and 4) providing assistance to government, businesses, and other groups to affect marine policy and facilitate solutions to marine problems.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearResearch highlights

IMS faculty supervised over 70 research projects (a total of $12 million) and the Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence in Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management ($15.35 million). Faculty members also published 50 refereed papers in scientific journals and books and an additional 25 papers have been accepted for publication. Brief summaries of a few ongoing projects follow.

A study in the Gulf of Mexico by Joel Fodrie has identified changes in near shore fish communities related to regional climate warming over the last 30-40 years. Numerous tropical species of snapper, grouper, and parrotfish are expanding their ranges northward. Identifying these changes is a critical first step in investigating the consequences of climate change for endemicmarine communities and fishery production. These data will also be important for examining community level responses of fish to the BP oil spill.

Niels Lindquist is investigating the impact of carbonate eroding sponges on North Carolina oyster reefs. These sponges infest and degrade oyster shells and can stress and kill oysters. His surveys have found that sponges are abundant in oyster reefs in high-salinity areas, such as the two largest oyster sanctuaries constructed by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries in eastern Pamlico Sound. The oyster populations have recently crashed in both of these sanctuaries while oyster abundance is high and sponge abundance low in sanctuaries constructed in less salty western and southern portions of Pamlico Sound.

Joel Fodrie, Niels Lindquist, and Tony Rodriguez are evaluating the success of multiple intertidal oyster reefs constructed in the late 1990s by former graduate student Jon Grabowski. The varying states of these reefs suggest that a narrow elevation zone exists within the intertidal, below where processes such as predation, disease, and bioerosion prohibit reef success.

To further test the critical elevation hypothesis and guide future oyster restoration efforts, 0.65 acres of new oyster reef are now being constructed.

Chris Martens is monitoring light hydrocarbons at Conch Reef in the Florida Keys as part of the effort to identify impacts of the BP oil spill.

Rachel Noble has developed new QPCR assays for a range of microbial contaminants and fecal markers such as E. coli and Bacteroides spp. Two patents have been filed for the assays following extensive research into their ability to rapidly (< 3 hrs) and accurately test recreational waters (marine and freshwater). The assays are in use this summer at 15 high-profile California beaches and are being evaluated for widespread use in recreational waterqualitymonitoring.

Hans Paerl has been working with Chinese colleagues to determine nutrient input reductions needed to control toxic blue-green algal blooms on Lake Taihu, China’s third-largest lake and one of the country’s prime fisheries and recreational resources. The work is helping both the Chinese and U.S. governments develop long-term nutrient-management strategies for restoring “hyper-eutrophic” lakes suffering from excess manmade nutrient loading.

Pete Peterson, Steve Fegley, and postdoctoral researcher Chris Voss are collaborating on a $1 million study on behalf of Duke Energy of the abundances and behaviors of birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals in eastern Pamlico Sound, to assess potential risks associated with the development of wind farms over the sound or coastal ocean. The surveys have demonstrated the importance of Pamlico Sound as overwintering grounds for a large fraction of the East Coast’s population of water birds—ducks,geese, ganetts, scoters, loons, cormorants, gulls, and terns. The study has shown that few birds fly high enough to overlap with the rotor-swept elevation range of 26.5m - 135.5m.

Peterson, Voss, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration economist Eric English completed a book on the ecology and economics of compensatory restoration of aquatichabitats and resources injured by oil spills and other forms of pollution. This book proved timely as it is helping direct the ecological and economic injury studies and restoration following the BP oil spill.

Mike piehler and tony Rodriguez survey a Middle Marsh oyster reef constructed 14 years ago by former IMS graduate student Jon Grabowski.


The Chowan River Basin had one of the largest spawning migrations of river herring in the southeastern United States until fishingpressuresandpoorwaterqualitycontributedtoitscollapse.Resource managers identified food availability as an impediment to recovery efforts. However, a study completed by Mike Piehler, research associate Dina Leech, and doctoral candidate Scott Ensign has shown that the food supply is ample and therefore unlikely to be limiting the recovery.

Piehler’s lab has also completed a habitat-specific assessment of nitrogen cycling in shallow estuarine ecosystems. Doctoral student Ashley Smyth found higher rates of denitrification in structured habitats such as salt marshes, oyster reefs, and sea grass beds than in intertidal and subtidal flats. When the value of nitrogen removal by denitrification was estimated using North Carolina’s nutrient offset rate ($13/kg nitrogen), the structured habitats provided up to $2,000 more for nitrogen removal per year than unstructured habitats. These findings have significant implications for future restoration and conservation efforts.

Research by Tony Rodriguez and colleagues found that bay-head deltas and fringing marshes of estuaries fed by lower coastal-plain river systems are rapidly influenced by changes in the watershed. These low-relief watersheds make up about 75 percent of the counties in North Carolina that have estuarine shorelines, andarefrequentlybeingalteredbycoastaldevelopment.Resultssuggest that the changes in coastal land-use and climate may have rapid and profound effects on these river systems and their associated estuaries.

Johanna Rosman’s numerical simulations have illustrated

that the turbulent energy and Reynolds stresses observed by stationary sensors can be altered significantly by surface waves. Methods currently used to estimate turbulence properties from velocity spectra are valid only under limited circumstances in the coastal ocean. Her simulations are being used to develop new analyses that are less sensitive to wave contamination.

Using a combination of field and laboratory flume measurements and computer simulations, Rosman has found that residence times within coral colonies (and thus concentrations of dissolvedquantities that corals consumeor release) are stronglydependent on both ambient flow conditions and coral morphology. Rosman is investigating the influence of flow and morphology on residence time, nutrient availability, and “food” encounter rates by corals.

Computer simulations by Rick Luettich’s group (adcirc.org/oilspill) identified potential near-shore oil trajectories from the BP oil spill in the event of a hurricane passing through the Gulf of Mexico.

Teaching highlights Rachel Noble led the Institute of the Environment fall

semester field site at IMS. IMS faculty taught four courses for the program—including a capstone course on the benefit tofiddlercrabsofa“livingshorelinetreatment”ofmarshsills—andsupervised independent research projects for eight undergraduate students.

During spring semester, Joel Fodrie taught 18 students in the graduate course in biological oceanography (MASC 504). The course was comprised of lectures on campus and two weeks of field trips from IMS.

Steve Fegley and Pete Peterson led the first year of a three-year National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates grant that supported 8 undergraduate interns at IMS from May to July.

During the year IMS faculty supervised 11 post doctoral researchers, served as principal advisors for 29 graduate students, participated on 47 graduate student committees, and supervised research projects by 47 undergraduate and 4 high school students.

Public Service HighlightsPete Peterson chaired a National Research Council (NRC)

committee that produced a book recommending a dramatic expansion of shellfish mariculture in the estuaries and coastal ocean of the United States. This would help satisfy growing seafood demands and enhance the economic well-being of coastal communities, such as those in eastern North Carolina, while also benefitting the ecosystem through water filtration and promotion of the growth of sea grass nursery habitat.

Rick Luettich briefed U.S. congressional staff on the results of a NRC review of hurricane-protection system designs for southern Louisiana. In another visit to Capitol Hill, Luettich briefed congressional committees on the likely impacts of hurricanes on the BP oil spill. He appeared on numerous media outlets including National Public Radio and the Weather Channel (twice) to discuss this issue.

Niels Lindquist helped organize the first three Carteret County presentations in the Coastal Science Café series devoted

IMS researcher Johanna Rosman measures flow and associated flushing rates through a coral head. Rosman has found that residence times within coral colonies are strongly dependent on both ambient flow conditions and coral morphology.


to educating eastern N.C. citizens about science and its benefits to our society.

IMS faculty served on 45 local, state, and national commissions, advisory committees, and panels, and provided several hundred thousand dollars in free consulting and other services to N.C. state agencies during the year. Continuing our close ties with the local community, IMS faculty served on the Carteret County Economic Development Council advisory board and provided tours and lectures for Carteret County K-12 students and other local groups.

Faculty and student awards Doctoral candidate Scott Ensign (whose advisor is Mike

Piehler) was awarded a highly competitive U.S. Geological Survey Mendenhall Research Fellowship to support his postgraduate research. Undergraduate student Sarah Hiser (whose advisor is Rachel Noble) won an award at the UNC Office for Undergraduate Research Conference after presenting her research on the growth of virulent Vibrio bacteria in the Neuse River Estuary, North Carolina. Rick Luettich received a Department of Homeland

Security Science and Technology Impact Award for his work on storm surge forecasting during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearPopulation growth and development continue to occur at

alarming rates in coastal North Carolina. The research, education, and service provided by IMS contribute directly to protecting the health of our coastal waters, preserving our beaches and fisheries, and reducing our vulnerability to climate change and coastal hazards. Situated in the middle of a giant “outdoor laboratory” ofcoastalNorthCarolina,IMSisuniquelypositionedtoaddressmany of the pressing coastal issues that the state and nation are facing.

Our primary goal for the coming year is to continue to increase the impact of IMS activities by strategically strengthening IMS research, educational, and outreach programs in critical areas such as environmental sensing and public health, coastal hazards, alternative energy, coastal impacts of climate change, shoreline and barrier island sustainability, ecosystem assessment and restoration, andfisheriesandaquaculture.


Nutrition Research InstituteSteven H. Zeisel, Director

The mission of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Nutrition Research Institute at Kannapolis (NRI) is to use

genomic, epigenetic, and metabolomic biotechnology to explore whyandhowmetabolismandnutrientrequirementsdifferfromperson to person. NRI’s vision is to enhance the ability of scientists, physicians, and health-care professionals to evaluate a person’s metabolism and genetic profile, and then develop nutrition-based solutions that target that individual’s susceptibilities. NRI’s current objective is to begin targeting metabolic and genetic characteristics thatpredisposeapersonto increasedrequirementsfornutrientsassociated with brain development and function, protection against cancer, and maintenance of normal body weight. By using this new view of nutritional individuality, NRI will develop highly targeted solutions—including clinical and community-basedinterventions—tooptimizebraindevelopmentandfunctionandto prevent cancer and obesity.

Major Accomplishments During the Past YearNRI’s facility on the North Carolina Research Campus in

Kannapolis, North Carolina, opened two years ago. This 125,000 square-foot buildinghouses 12 largewet laboratories, a clinicalsuite, a research kitchen, a human whole-room calorimeter (metabolic chamber), a metabolic-rate assessment lab, a body-composition lab, and a behavior/human cognitions assessment lab. The first year was spent commissioning the building, opening labs,installingequipment,andbeginningresearch.Inthissecondyear of operation, NRI’s four inaugural faculty members made significant progress in their research programs, ranging from diet assessment in aboriginal Arctic populations to the effects of dietary fatty acids on cognition and memory development in children.

NRI has made important contributions to the understanding of the effects of maternal diet on fetal brain development. Steven H. Zeisel’s laboratory team led by Mihai George Mehedint conducted a mouse study that found that prenatal diets lacking in choline, an essential nutrient found in all cell membranes, result in fewer blood vessels in the brains of developing fetuses. The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could be of great importance to women. According to NRI director Zeisel, “Most pregnant women in the United States have diets that are choline-deficient; only 14 percent of expecting mothers in the U.S. are eating enough choline.” Choline-rich foods include milk, egg yolks, soybeans, beef, chicken, peanuts, wheat germ, flax seeds, sesame seeds, potatoes, cauliflower, lentils, and oats. To test whether choline directly affects fetal blood vessel formation, the Zeisel lab fed choline-deficient and control diets to pregnant mice and then examined the brains of the pups. The researchers report that choline-deficient fetal mice had fewer blood vessels in the hippocampus (brain memory center) than the control group, which was fed a normal diet. In addition, the choline-deficient diet correlated to high levels of two growth factors that regulate new blood vessel formation. The research complements previous

studies that link low choline intake to a decreased production of nerve cells in the brains of fetal mice.

Mihai Niculescu’s lab has also has been studying the effects of maternal diet on fetal brain development. Niculescu and colleagues conducted a mouse study whereby they fed the dams (mothers) a high-fat diet (60 percent of calories from fat). In mice that were fed this diet, offspring had lower fetal body weight and a greater loss of fetuses during pregnancy. Furthermore, the high-fat diet resulted in changes in the development of the fetal hippocampus. Niculescu’s team discovered that while stem cell division was increased in the area where neural stem cells are born, fewer cells were dividing in the area where these cells form the memory center. There was also a decrease in the number of mature nerve cells present in the memory center. These findings may have long-term implications for memory in babies. High-fat diets are becoming very common in U.S. adults, and women may not be aware that there could be consequences for their babies’ braindevelopment.

Not only did our researchers generate novel findings that may eventually lead to dietary recommendations for pregnant women, but our researchers’ grants and contracts provided a much-needed influx of dollars to the university in a very tight budget environment. NRI was awarded over $1.3 million in external contracts and grants in fiscal year 2009-2010. Given that the institute is still in its early years and has only four primary investigators, we are exceptionally proud of and grateful for the productivity of our scientists.

Our research programs also create opportunities for training the scientists of the future. In 2009-2010, NRI hosted six postdoctoral research fellows, 17 university students (graduate and undergraduate), and three high-school students, all of whom

nRI’s K-12 outreach efforts include science fairs, internships and experiential learning, facility tours, career exploration, and a biennial art contest.


worked on research studies under the mentorship of NRI faculty members. In addition, Zeisel collaborated with Jack Odle of North Carolina State University to serve as principal investigators on a $1 million training grant awarded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This training grant set up the Kannapolis Scholars program, which funds five doctoral students selected from any of the seven UNC universities with a presence on the North Carolina Research Campus, and provides these scholars with hands-on laboratory experience and mentorship from faculty.

Ongoing research at NRI includes studies by Carol Cheatham on the effects of omega-3 fatty acids on brain function in human infants, by Andrew Swick on energy metabolism and the causes of obesity, and by Martin Kohlmeier on clinical nutrigenetics.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearFaculty recruitment

To achieve great things, NRI must continue recruiting the best researchers that science has to offer. NRI is currently recruiting additional faculty members in the areas of nutrigenomics, nutrition and behavior (mouse models), human obesity or energy metabolism, nutrition, and fetal alcohol syndrome. NRI’s broad rangeofresearchrequiresscientistswithavarietyofspecialties.Thegoal is to craft a mix of disciplinary expertise to build the institute’s capacity to study nutrition from a variety of perspectives.

Building bridges across the North Carolina Research CampusAt NRI, we want to build upon and expand collaborative

interactions with faculty members from other universities at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis. NRI director Zeisel is collaborating with investigators from Duke University on fatty liver research and, as noted earlier, he is the coprincipal investigator on a USDA training grant for $1 million per year that supports doctoral students from Carolina, NC State, UNC-Greensboro, UNC A&T, NC Central and UNC-Charlotte. Two NRI faculty members are working with NC State and the USDA to host USDA postdoctoral research associates. Our faculty members have all submitted research grant applications with one or more investigators from other universities also at the North Carolina Research Campus.

The momentum is in the right direction to create opportunities to work together and leverage resources, but in the next year, NRI would like to examine what more could be done and which strategies most effectively promote cross-fertilization of ideas and collaboration on research activities.

Public serviceIn 2009-2010, NRI established a community advisory board.

Our advisory board membership is exceptional, consisting of an ex-governor of North Carolina, the former CEO of the Ruddick Corporation (which owns the Harris Teeter grocery chain), the former CEO of Food Lion, a division president of Duke Power, a former comptroller of the United States, and many other influential members of the Charlotte metro area. We hope that this advisory board will assist us in developing broad-based community support and public service opportunities.

The institute will also continue to build upon its existing public service activities, including its K-12 outreach (science fairs, internships and experiential learning, facility tours, career exploration, and a biennial art contest), internship opportunities for university students, public speaking engagements by faculty and senior staff to community groups, and its popular Appetite For Life lecture series, which presents innovative nutrition research in a nontechnical, accessible manner to the general public.

nRI is recruiting faculty in the areas of nutrigenomics, nutrition and behavior (mouse models), human obesity or energy metabolism, nutrition, and fetal alcohol syndrome.


Renaissance Computing InstituteStanley C. Ahalt, Director

T he Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) develops and deploys advanced cyber technologies to enable research

discoveries and practical innovations. RENCI partners with university research teams, policymakers, and technology leaders to engage and solve the challenging problems that affect North Carolina, our nation, and the world.

Major Accomplishments During the Past Year Secure medical workspace

RENCI launched a key project with the UNC Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) and UNC Hospitals to build a secure medical workspace (SMW) that enables research on patient data and other sensitive data. The project will eliminate the risk of accidental or malevolent violations of data-use agreements inmedicalresearch—aproblemthathasplaguedtheuniversityinthe past and has cost millions in fines. The project is a collaboration that involves the UNC CTSA Biomedical Informatics Group, the UNC Hospital Information Services Division, and UNC Information Technologies Services. To date, the project team has interviewed research groups to determine requirements for theSMW, evaluated vendor solutions, and started developing standard operating procedures and solutions that will prevent unauthorized data movement out of the SMW. The research team also works with a Purdue University team to develop management policies, and they plan to submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support further development.

Next-generation sequencing infrastructureTechnologyputsgenomicsequencingdataatthefingertipsof

researchers, but researchers’ ability to process and analyze the vast quantitiesofdataproducedhasnotkeptpace.RENCIandtheUNC medical genetics department are building a computational infrastructuretomanageandanalyzegenomicsequencedata.Theresearchers will initially partner with three research teams in the UNC department of genetics: Jonathan Berg and Jim Evans, who study gene variants in heritable non-BRCA breast cancer; Ethan Lange, who searches for candidate prostate cancer genes; and Kirk WilhelmsenandYunLi,whoaresequencing4,000individualstostudy the genetics of substance abuse and algorithmic approaches tovariantcallingandsequencing.

NC expertise profiling (REACH NC)RENCI provides in-kind support to a UNC General

Administration-funded project to develop and deploy a North Carolina-specific expertise profiling system. Once complete, the platform will make the UNC system’s pool of experts in life sciences and biomedical research much more transparent, which willhelpUNCcampusestoquicklypulltogethermultidisciplinaryteams for competitive research proposals and on-demand problem solving. RENCI contributes its visual analytics and information visualization expertise to the project. The RENCI visualization

framework will draw on faculty data to visualize faculty members’ networks of connections and to identify potential connections that wouldn’t be evident without a visual tool. A prototype will be built using data from Carolina and NC State University. The research team plans to expand the framework to include all UNC system campuses, Duke University, and Wake Forest University.

National Weather Service exploratory center for decision support and technology

RENCI continued to work toward creating an exploratory centerwiththeNationalWeatherService(NWS).Attherequestof the NWS Office of Science and Technology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NWS’s parent organization) and RENCI developed a start-up project that will launch the working relationship between the two organizations. The scope of work will demonstrate how RENCI, by partnering with university research teams, can use new technologies to improve communications with emergency responders and how technology can be used to understand the social dimensions of weather emergencies and disaster mitigation and response. The project also will develop decision-support tools for emergency management and will create a rapid prototyping and assessment for new NWS software and tools.

Geovisualization and analyticsRENCI launched a strategic effort to build and deploy

cyberinfrastructure that allows users to visualize, analyze, and store geo-referenced data. The Geovisualization Framework not onlyallowsresearcherstostudygeographicquestions,itconnectsresearch to a region and the people of that region, and helps researchers to intuitively spot trends and connections in geo-referenced data. RENCI’s Geovisualization Framework is software-independent and can be used from a web browser, which makes sharing and collaboration easy. Examples of geovisualization and analytics in 2009-2010 include the following: • VisualizationofdatafromtheNorthCarolinaDiseaseEvent

Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool, which tracks the daily spread of diseases in North Carolina

• TheSustainableAgricultureProjectwiththeUNCSchoolofPublic Health, which visualizes data about farmers’ markets, such as travel times to market and demographics, in order to predict where future markets could succeed.

• TheREACHNCprojectwillalsousetheGeovisualizationFramework to visualize the locations and expertise of UNC system faculty members.

the ADCIRC computer model delineates storm surge and flooding along north Carolina’s coast in more detail than ever before possible.


Carolina Launch PadCarolina Launch Pad, RENCI’s precommercial technology

business accelerator, welcomed four new precommerical technology ventures to the program in January 2010 as the program began its second year. Five ventures participated in the program’s inaugural year, and one, Dyzen, received a $50,000 NC IDEA commercialization grant. In October 2010, the Launch Pad welcomed Rheomics Inc. to the program, a startup that builds an instrumentation and analysis system to measure critical properties in blood clots and blood flows and to perform diagnostics on cancer cells.

Carolina Launch Pad targets Carolina faculty, staff, and students who want to turn their technological inventions and ideas into viable businesses. The program is a partnership at UNC involving RENCI, the Office of Technology Development (OTD), and the Kenan-Flagler Business School. Participants receive office space for one year at RENCI and opportunities to collaborate with RENCI technology experts, attend RENCI lectures and events, and receive help in developing logos and websites. In addition, professionals with OTD, the business school, and from the Triangle IT community provide coaching and mentoring to the entrepreneurs in partnership with UNC’s Launching the Venture program.

North Carolina floodplain and storm surge modelingRENCI completed the North Carolina Coastal Flood

Insurance Study submittal 2, which the state presented to FEMA in March. The submittal is a comprehensive modeling study of the continental shelf and coast and their storm surge, tidal propagation, and wind-wave fields. FEMA’s approval of the submittal 2 report will allow the final floodplains caused by storm surge to be computed and modeled. Those final models will affect decisions about coastal development for years to come and will be used to determine flood insurance rates. RENCI will document this state-of-the-science coastal modeling in a peer-reviewed journal.

RENCI also continued to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to model storm surge in FEMA Region 3, which extends from Currituck County north through the Chesapeake Bay. The researchers are building a Digital Elevation Model that merges topographic and bathymetric data into a comprehensive, seamless, digital representation of coastal elevation. Such a model has never been developed for this region.

Goals for the Coming Academic YearDuring its first year under the leadership of director Stanley

C. Ahalt, RENCI focused on creating an organization that is transparent and efficient and that provides clear and well-documented value to Carolina, the UNC system, and the state of North Carolina. In FY2011, RENCI will continue to implement its vision and demonstrate its value in many ways, including the following:

Expand and diversify external funding sources. Externally funded projects allow RENCI to provide value to the state and the university system without an additional commitment of state resources. As of midyear 2010, RENCI had received $1.5 million in new funding. Pending proposals totaled $12.6 million and

$69.5 million for its partners. Among the major pending proposals is the DataNet Federation Consortium, (five years, $20 million) led by RENCI and Carolina’s School of Information and Library Sciences. In addition, RENCI is a major partner in three Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation proposals (NSF) and in a proposal to use technology to identify economic development clusters (U.S. Department of Commerce).

Continue to build RENCI’s reputation as a research and innovation enabler. RENCI has a role in nearly $70 million in sponsored research because it provides the cyberinfrastructure, cyber tools, and technical expertise that are essential for major research projects. RENCI’s Geovisualization Framework, data, informatics, visualization, collaborative environments, networking expertise, and computing resources help research teams take their work to new levels, where new and greater sources of funding are possible and where research results can lead to business innovations.

Demonstrate value to the Carolina campus and state stakeholders by advancing the science of cyberinfrastructure. The science of cyberinfrastructure works to continually improve the cyber technologies needed to compete in the twenty-first century. By documenting the lessons learned through its research partnerships, RENCI will help North Carolina and its universities become world leaders in cyberinfrastructure development and deployment and a magnet for the state’s sustainable economic growth.

Develop strategic partnerships with faculty and research groups. These relationships will build North Carolina’s reputation as a research and innovation powerhouse and bring new federal dollars and economic opportunities to the state.

Continue to build a RENCI-wide team to serve the campus engagement centers. Running the centers centrally and rotating RENCI experts as needed for engagement center projects will enable more productive use of the centers for research and education.

RenCI storm surge modeling will be used in setting coastal flood insurance rates. this image is an example of a visual surge model with a Google earth overlay.

2010 OVCRED Annual Report

Documents

Transcript of 2010 OVCRED Annual Report