UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts: It's a 'crucial time' for federal funding

Some questions um you just talked about um being in

Washington and and the conversations that are going on

Um I've noticed that there has been an increase in

spending on federal lobbying um both since January but also

since you um became Chancellor

Um could you just talk about I assume it's a

priority of yours just kind of why that is why

the the the bigger investment on it um

Under your leadership but also now um under under Trump

and on all the changes

Sure crucial time as it relates to federal funding

So we received about $1.55 billion in federal research funding

We're in the top 10 nationally and there have been

a lot of questions raised about the future of federal

research funding

We receive over $600 million a year just from NIH

And so when that funding is threatened we feel as

though it's our responsibility to make sure we're telling the

story about the great work that goes on here at

Carolina not just groundbreaking and life saving research but the

support of thousands of jobs here in Chapel Hill in

the Triangle and in North Carolina

So we continue to make our case as effectively as

we can with federal policymakers

We do that directly ourselves

I spend a lot of time on it personally

We also have a federal relations team that works for

the university

We work through the system office

We work through trade associations like the AAU and the

APLU and then we also work with law firms and

advocacy firms and

Both in Washington and Raleigh in that regard as well

I don't think there's anything unique about Carolina in in

that respect

In fact I was up last time I was up

on the hill it looked like an AAU meeting

There were so many university presidents and chancellors walking the

halls of Congress

Um could you talk about some of the people you

have lobbying for you includes Richard Burr Chess McDowell Chris

Lavita um just You know I think people can draw

their conclusions about why they might be the most effective

people to do it right now but just what your

what your view of that is how you decide who

you want lobbying for the university

We have a range of folks lobbying for us both

law firms and advocacy firms and some of them are

long

Term retainers and some of them are hired on a

more short term basis we're right in the middle obviously

a federal budget season

The House just delivered their budget early this morning so

this is one of the most intense times you'd expect

to see a rise in our Uh in our spending

on advocacy efforts during a period like this

Uh yes I have a couple more questions about um

your federal law but so I was wondering which specific

lawmakers you were meeting with um any congressional committees and

then I was also wondering if there's any legislation in

the process of being proposed

We spend a lot of time with the North Carolina

delegation as you expect and they've been tremendously supportive

We don't need to convince them of how important research

is to Carolina and how important Carolina is to the

To the health of the state I've said many times

that I'm pretty confident that this is the most important

institution in building a better future for North Carolinians and

has been consistently since 1793

But we also speak with the chairs of the committees

and the staffs of the the relevant committees so the

uh the committees that govern higher education and and federal

research as well as Both House and Senate leadership

As far as legislation goes the the the primary legislation

is the budget itself and the House budget was delivered

this morning there'll be a reconciliation process

With the Senate budget your guess is as good as

mine on how long that's that's going to take but

we'll continue to stay engaged with policymakers in that regard

Thank you

And I was also wondering um I have noticed from

the lobbying reports that there seems to be a really

big emphasis on advocating for health sciences research funding and

as you know there are any cuts to live

Programs like social sciences humanities information sciences

I was wondering if there's any work going on behind

the scenes to advocate for funding in those areas as

well

We're always advocating for Carolina and for more funding for

our priorities

Health Sciences is particularly important to us here at Carolina

I mentioned the $600 million

It's more than that

A little over $600 million in NIH funding specifically and

that's uh um been a particular target and so we

do spend a lot of time and focus on that

and other health sciences funding

But more broadly we're always advocating for for Carolina and

for for our funding profile not just at the federal

level but at the state level

We're extraordinarily fortunate here in North Carolina to have so

much support from the state and its taxpayers broad bipartisan

consensus going back decades over $600 million in state appropriation

and we continue to engage with policymakers in Raleigh as

well