By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- In remarks to the university's board of trustees this week, N.C. Central University Chancellor Charlie Nelms made passing reference to where some NCCU faculty had been during the week.

They were at Cape Canaveral -- as guests of NASA -- for the launch of the Atlantis Space Shuttle.

They were there because the university will receive $5 million over the next five years to establish the NASA Center for Aerospace Research and Education at Central.

It's the kind of high-level, big-money research project NCCU administrators are looking to encourage and hopeful of getting on their campus.

"We have a tremendous opportunity for growth [in research]," said Hazell Reed, the school's vice chancellor for graduate education and research. "With our proximity to Research Triangle Park, in particular, we believe we can really grow our research presence."

Compared to the research money taken in by its neighbors, Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill, both major research institutions, NCCU takes in a pittance. That's particularly true concerning the flood of recent goverment-sponsored stimulus funding.

Over the past six months or so, Duke and Carolina have taken in around a quarter of a billion stimulus dollars for more than 500 different research projects.

NCCU, meanwhile, has received only a little more than $400,000 in stimulus funding, although administrators remain optimistic that they can access more.

Overall, though, the research portfolio at the school is growing.

Researchers at NCCU in fiscal 2008 received $9 million in funding from 73 grants and awards. In fiscal 2009, which ended June 30, that number rose to $21 million, from 83 grants and awards. So far this fiscal year, through September, the university has taken in $14 million from 35 grants and awards.

"We believe we can increase our research portfolio by 50 percent," Reed said, "and we are well on our way to that."

But there are obstacles, administrators acknowledge.

"We don't have that research infrastructure [larger institutions do]," Nelms said. "We don't have a lot of the basic infrastructure. We have a large number of instructional facilities, but not the type of facilities we need to do all that research."

NCCU has improved its facilities in recent years, particularly with the opening of the BRITE -- for Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise -- building.

Another problem is teaching load.

Most faculty at NCCU teach four courses a semester. That doesn't give them very much time to do research, Nelms said.

The faculty workload, Reed added, "really creates some serious challenges."

But they are challenges, he added, that can be overcome. "We believe we can do better," Reed said, "and we are starting to see that."