It’s common for UNC to work with state and local government officials for research of different issues. But it isn’t so common for the General Assembly to direct university researchers to studying environmental policy.

The General Assembly appropriated one million dollars to the university as part of the 2016-2017 state budget to launch the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory. Its purpose is for the faculty-led research at UNC to join with practical usage by the General Assembly.

UNC Faculty Chair Bruce Cairns spoke with WCHL about the possibility of this collaboratory last week. Cairns said the faculty is ready to get the project started but not without some concern over how the center was ordered from the legislature.

“The faculty, as it always has been, is fully engaged in the creation of these kinds of entities.”

However, Cairns also says getting the process started will be a little different since research centers aren’t usually created by a spot in the state budget. He says U-N-C faculty and Provost Jim Dean are working to find out how the collaboratory will fit in the UNC structure.

“We are a public university so this becomes a transparent process. And we have a mission. And we have a set of standards that we uplift and uphold. And all of this will be our focus as we move forward with this enterprise.”

Cairns says Dean plans to keep the faculty updated with where the collaboratory is in the research processes. And he says he’s excited for it to get off the ground.
“It is a novel mechanism to try to create an entity such as this at UNC Chapel Hill.”

UNC announced it was going forward with the collaboratory and that it will be managed by the office of Brad Ives, the university’s chief sustainability officer and associate vice chancellor for campus enterprises. He’ll serve as interim director during the launch phase.

The collaboratory has the opportunity to receive an additional $3.5 million if the university can raise enough money to match the original $1 million provided by the legislature.

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