The UNC system, which will receive $13.7 million in 2001, ranks 31st nationally among public university systems receiving congressionally appropriated funds.
Congress provided $1.67 billion in funds earmarked for colleges this year -- $624 million more than last year.
Pork-barrel legislation, also known as earmarks, are federally directed grants appropriated for specific research. The funds usually are for projects used to channel federal money to a lobbying congressman's district.
But Bob Samors, UNC-system associate vice president of federal relations, said the state is ranked third nationally for receiving peer-reviewed federal funding, most of which goes toward science and engineering.
Peer-reviewed funds are grants issued on a competitive basis for specific research projects. "It's not a question of trying to find out more projects to earmark, but a question of finding what the universities need and what the priorities are," Samors said.
Samors said officials are not concerned with the system's national earmark ranking. "The question is whether the university is doing good work with the funds that it has," he said.
UNC-Chapel Hill must share $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Defense with two other universities. The money will benefit both military and business research.
UNC-CH also received two additional appropriations -- the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services allocated $850,000 for cancer, fibrosis and hypertension research, and NASA allocated $500,000 for a hands-on science museum.
But N.C. legislators still are working to increase federal funding for the state.
