N.C. Biotech Center rejects Golden LEAF grant for biodefense lab support

Research Triangle Park, N.C. — Proponents of the national agro-bio defense lab that could be built at Butner have just said no to a $262,248 grant that would have funded efforts to support the project.

Valeria Lee, president of Golden LEAF, told WRAL.com that she had received a letter from Norris Tolson, chief executive officer of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, in which Tolson said the Center “would not be accepting the grant.”

Tolson cited restrictions on the use of the grant from the foundation as the reason for rejecting the funding. Golden LEAF awarded the grant on July 15. Tolson’s rejection letter was sent July 29.

Chris Brodie, vice president of corporate communications for the Biotech Center, provided a statement Tuesday afternoon, calling the Golden LEAF conditions "unacceptable.”

“The North Carolina Biotechnology Center appreciates the recent approval of a public-education grant by the Golden LEAF for addressing issues surrounding the proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Granville County. However, the Biotechnology Center must decline this award,” the Center said.

“The Biotechnology Center deems the terms and conditions of the contract required for the release of funds to be unacceptable. Nevertheless, the Biotechnology Center continues to support North Carolina as an ideal location for the NBAF and believes that substantive discussion must continue on issues related to the establishment of this important facility for animal and public-health research.”

Lee said Tolson did not ask that the requirements for the grant be changed. She also said that the stipulations in the agreement were not “too different” from those in other grants.

Because the proposed lab is such a controversial project, Lee said Golden LEAF and its board wanted to ensure that the grant-backed program would provide a “full and fair exposition of the facts” about the proposed lab.

In his letter, Tolson wrote that the Center had “concluded that it would not be wise or appropriate for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center to proceed on this NBAF Community Education Grant.”

Golden LEAF provided a copy of Tolson’s letter as well as the proposed grant agreement.

The economic development group that oversees North Carolina’s proceeds from the national tobacco settlement, agreed to a request from the Biotech Center-led coalition for a grant to support an educational effort about the lab.

Critics of the project have been outspoken in their concerns about the facility.

In his letter, Tolson said the procedures governing the grant “are extraordinarily complicated and they are virtually unworkable from an administrative perspective.”

Tolson also questioned the requirement that information in the campaign “be submitted to Golden LEAF for its review and for its possible veto.”

“Thus, while supposedly acting as a ‘grantor,’ the Foundation would in fact be retaining control of editorial content over what views and opinions are expressed about NBAF’s merits or demerits,” Tolson wrote.

He noted that the agreement “also raises constitutional issues concerning impermissible prior restraints on speech protected by the First Amendment.”

Lee said Golden LEAF remained committed to supporting and growing the biotechnology industry across the state, noting its funding of bio-workforce training facilities and other programs.

“This grant, while having some special circumstances around it, was still being made as part of our commitment to grow the biotechnology industry,” she said. “That [commitment] hasn’t changed a bit. Our commitment is for North Carolina to be the leading state in the biotechnology industry.”

A variety of university and other organizations formed the consortium to support the facility. Granville County commissioners and the city council of Raleigh have opposed it.

The opposition stems from the fact that scientists would study diseases such as foot-and-mouth. Some residents said they worry about the potential risk associated with deadly organisms being in the community.

The government wants to replace an aging facility in Plum Island, N.Y.

Supporters said the $450 million lab would bring about 1,500 short-term construction jobs to the area and would eventually employ up to 500 people.