Congressman David Price

Congressman David Price, of the 4th district, says the 70 million dollars in stimulus funds UNC received has had a good effect locally and that the granting of the money speaks a lot for the University, as they had positioned themselves to successfully put Federal stimulus dollars to work.

Congressman Price spoke at The Carolina Club during The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce sponsored breakfast. Specifically, he credited UNC for being “shovel ready” to use stimulus money for research as designated through The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Since March, researchers at UNC have received nearly 60 grants or awards totaling more than 20 million dollars from virtually every major agency in the National Institutes of Health, as well as the National Science Foundation. In addition, UNC received a five-year, 17.5 million dollar grant for a solar energy consortium from the U.S. Department of Energy that began this past August.

Price also touched upon how stimulus money has been used locally outside of the University’s national research achievements.

Price is referring to the Town of Chapel Hill receiving 9.4 million dollars in stimulus funds and Carrboro’s Piedmont Health Services receiving just over 1.5 million dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.