Executive Voices for September 2004

Learning to Earn
UNC teaching, research and outreach are crucial to North Carolina's economic future

By Molly Corbett Broad

North Carolina is undergoing a fundamental shift from a manufacturing economy to a global, knowledge-based economy. As a result, our colleges and universities are now being viewed as major economic resources, and there is growing recognition that the 16-campus University of North Carolina can help lead and support that transition. The UNC Board of Governors has identified this effort as a strategic priority. The importance of UNC’s active involvement has been underscored by recommendations from the state Economic Development Board, the legislature’s Joint Select Committee on Economic Development, and the Research Triangle Region’s Future Clusters Competitiveness Task Force, among others.

North Carolina has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs over the past decade, and we must replace them with high-paying knowledge jobs that can strengthen North Carolina’s economic foundation for the future. To compete, today’s workers need increased access to university-level education. For that reason UNC is making its curriculum more nimble and responsive and taking full advantage of emerging technologies. Last fall, more than 14,500 students — most of them over age 25 — enrolled in UNC courses taught at a distance.

Task forces of the UNC Board of Governors also are addressing state workforce shortages in high-need areas, including teaching, nursing, and allied health, as well as emerging biotechnology fields. Several UNC campuses have established joint degree programs in key engineering fields. And aided by a $60-million grant from the GoldenLEAF Foundation and additional legislative support, N.C. State University and N.C. Central University are leading statewide efforts to produce specialized workers for the biomanufacturing industry. In a related vein, the UNC Office of the President is assessing the demand for professional sciences master’s degree programs, which would blend a traditional science curriculum with supplemental coursework in management, informatics, law, and communications.

 To accommodate growing enrollment demand and to meet future skill needs, the university is investing $2.5 billion through the 2000 Higher Education Bond Program. More than one-third of this investment is earmarked for new science, engineering, and other research facilities. In addition to providing new opportunities for teaching, research, and outreach, the U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that this construction program will generate 88,000 jobs statewide.

With sponsored research grants and contracts approaching $950 million in fiscal 2003, UNC ranks third nationally among university systems. While these research awards — largely funded by the federal government — support thousands of projects that address human health, agriculture, education, biotechnology, and other areas of strategic importance, they also generate nearly 32,000 jobs in North Carolina.

North Carolina is one of the few states with the critical mass of biotech companies and the research infrastructure to be an industry leader, and Ernst and Young now ranks North Carolina third nationally in biotech industry. Seizing on that standing, UNC emphasizes the transfer of university-based research and technologies to the marketplace. In fiscal 2002 alone, UNC-based research produced more than 80 new patents and start-up companies and generated a new invention for every day in the year.

Hemocellular Therapeutics, a start-up company based on technology developed by researchers at East Carolina University and UNC Chapel Hill, offers a classic example of how UNC research feeds the North Carolina economy. Founded in 2003, Hemocellular is refining the production of freeze-dried blood platelets, a medical advance that could save the lives of thousands of trauma patients and others who bleed to death each year. The result of more than $10 million in federal grants and private seed capital, Hemocellular hopes to begin human clinical trials soon. Company officials have plans for a plant in Pitt County and predict an annual payroll of $15 million within five years of start-up.

With grant funding from the National Science Foundation, UNC launched a Technology Development Initiative several years ago to build greater tech-transfer capacity on every campus. As an outgrowth of that effort, we have contracted with Seed Stage, an affiliate of Wake Forest University, to provide tech-transfer assistance to six UNC campuses in Western North Carolina. And N.C. State, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Wilmington, and Western Carolina University are building programs to support entrepreneurship. Through our Small Business and Technology Development Centers, UNC has increased access to federal research and development funding for North Carolina’s business community, as well.

This growing emphasis on innovative public-private partnerships is exemplified on several UNC campuses by the creation of Millennial campuses, modeled on the remarkably successful Centennial Campus at N.C. State. By fostering collaborative research and technology transfer, such initiatives create jobs and spur entrepreneurial activity. Most recently, UNC Greensboro and NC A&T announced plans to develop a joint Millennial Campus that draws on their complementary research strengths and supports the economic needs of the Triad.

 As a university and as a state, we must make strategic decisions and investments in order to capitalize on our proven and potential strengths. We must very carefully balance academic and university interests. Yet I believe the 21st-century strategy for economic success is to take scientific research, link it with technology developments, and then add a very highly educated workforce. That is what is going to produce innovation, the linchpin to stimulating and sustaining economic development in North Carolina.

Molly Broad is president of the 16-campus University of North Carolina