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The Core Facility Advocacy Committee (CFAC) in the Office of Research Technologies, UNC School of Medicine (SOM), organized a new pilot program for research projects that directly utilize UNC SOM biomedical research cores. Core vouchers worth up to $10,000 were awarded to 26 investigators with qualified projects to be used exclusively for core services.


The Core Facility Advocacy Committee (CFAC) in the Office of Research Technologies, UNC School of Medicine (SOM), organized a new pilot program for research projects that directly utilize UNC SOM biomedical research cores. Core vouchers worth up to $10,000 were offered to investigators with projects that met one or more of the following criteria: 1) new method development; 2) generation of pilot data for a project not currently funded; or 3) new user of a core. The program was not intended to supplement ongoing, funded research but rather to help investigators innovate, test new ideas, develop a new method, or work with a core that they have not previously used. One hundred and twenty applications were received in response to this pilot program from applicants across the university of any rank, including tenured and tenure-track faculty, fixed-term faculty, postdoctoral fellows and doctoral students.

Following NIH-style reviews of the applications, 26 investigators (including 5 trainees) were awarded more than $230,000 to complete their projects, in collaboration with 18 different cores. A list of awarded projects can be found here. Funding for these projects was provided by the Dean’s Office to support the research component of the strategic plan “Forward Together”. Investigators are encouraged to use the funding by the end of the fiscal year and outcomes of these projects will be tracked. Congratulations to those investigators and core facilities who received these awards. CFAC anticipates offering this program again next year.

CFAC members include Jennifer Brennan, Richard Cheney, Terry Furey, Chris Gregory, Li Qian, Jon Serody, John Sondek and Annabelle Stein.