A message from the Vice Chancellor for Research

This past week UNC-Chapel Hill launched For All Kind: The Campaign for Carolina, spanning all schools and departments. Fundraising is a critical component of how universities fund themselves. Carolina's campaign goals have been shaped over the past three years by hundreds of people who shared ideas about what this university is and their dreams of how its impact on society's greatest challenges will grow.

UNC places students, staff, and faculty first. They are the heart of our educational enterprise and have real needs that go beyond buildings and cash in the bank. Development is about telling a story and not about the person who tells it. Nobody explains the "why" better than Tar Heels, and this campaign is focused on them: the new graduate, the professoriate, and a culture of innovation driving signature initiatives.

An exciting campaign initiative that is important to our research mission is convergence science, which merges knowledge and tools from life sciences, physical sciences, medicine, engineering, and beyond to stimulate innovative research. This bold approach represents a cultural shift for academic organizations that have been traditionally organized around discipline-based departments. We are coordinating convergence through programs such as our Creativity Hubs, leading to a stronger framework of shared goals. These initiatives answer challenges put forth by our own curiosity, national vision-setting bodies, funders, academic leaders, government laboratories and industry, and medical and regulatory stakeholders. The goal is to focus the power of convergence to yield new knowledge and stimulate innovation.

The Campaign for Carolina is "for all kind." We as students, staff, and faculty are the storytellers for success.

Terry Magnuson
Vice Chancellor for Research