Cuts, Delays and Uncertainty: The New Reality for UNC Research
Since early 2025, federal agencies have shifted their research priorities, cutting or freezing grants that many UNC researchers depend on. Those changes have forced researchers across campus to adjust their projects, rewrite proposals and search for new funding.
Professor of Nutrition at the Gillings School of Public Health Alice Ammerman describes how the shake-up has disrupted her community-based research. Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Andy Johns explains how these federal shifts are reshaping UNC's research enterprise and how the University is responding.
111 grants were terminated, leading to $38 million of lost funding as of Sept. 2, 2025.
Alice Ammerman was interviewed Sept. 3. Andy Johns was interviewed Sept. 2.
Audio story by Kshitiz Adhikari.
Produced by Amelie Fawson.
Photo by Amina Williams.
30 Sept 2025
Ragebait or Real Discourse? Fearless Debates Hits UNC
Two conservative political activists from Fearless Debates sat behind a table near the Old Well on Friday, Sept. 19. With signs promoting deportation and rejecting abortion, they drew a crowd of UNC students, faculty and community members. Fearless Debates recently began their Fearless Tour, which sees the team visiting university campuses around the country to discuss hot button political issues.
Hear more about Fearless Debates’ political activism and UNC’s reaction to it on Heel Talk.
Story by Andrew Sellers
28 Apr 2025
SEVIS Status Restored: What You Missed Last Week at UNC
Welcome to the last Heel Talk episode of the semester, where AV Editor Natalie Bradin sits down with staffers Kshitiz Adhikari, Tae Hong and Brodie McCartan to discuss University, City and Lifestyle news you may have missed last week. On this episode, the group chats about the restored SEVIS status of 5 international students, a proposed House Bill that would further restrict abortion in North Carolina and the University's first student-led Climate Change Symposium since the pandemic.
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