A mix of layoffs and program cuts have reduced the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s budget by $4.6 million, bringing the center’s financial operations nearly in line with the 27 percent cut passed by the North Carolina general assembly.
The Biotech Center laid off a total of seven employees Tuesday, bringing the center’s headcount to 69 down from 76. The layoffs came across programs, support services and regional offices. In addition to those layoffs, four positions that were originally budgeted but unfilled have been eliminated.
With the program cuts and the staffing cuts, Biotech Center President and CEO Norris Tolson said the Biotech Center is close to bringing the center’s operations in line with the $12.6 million annual budget the general assembly approved for the center, down from $17.2 million in the previous fiscal year.
Staffing levels could be reduced further through a voluntary separation program that was announced last month. That program gave veteran Biotech Center staffers the chance to volunteer to leave the center with a severance package. While the sign-up period ended Aug. 15, separation decisions will not be finalized until Sept. 30. Tolson said he won’t know the Biotech Center’s final headcount until then. But Tolson expects that the layoffs combined with the voluntary separations will bring the Biotech Center’s headcount to about 20 percent less than it was in the prior fiscal year.
“I don’t anticipate additional layoffs,” he said. “However, if the general assembly hits us with another budget reduction next year, I’ve either got to cut people or programs. At some point you can’t operate the programs without the people.”
Layoff decisions
Tolson said that the layoff decisions were made by taking into consideration the programs that were cut. If a program was cut in its entirety, the person or people running that program was laid off. Instead of looking to make budget trims throughout the Biotech Center’s operations, Tolson said Biotech Center leadership evaluated each program against mandates set by the general assembly: Everything at the center must have an orientation toward job creation and wealth creation.
The research programs that were reduced were the Institutional Development Grants, the Biotechnology Research Grants and Collaborative Funding Grants. Community and economic development programs were trimmed through reductions in Biotechnology Meeting Grants, Presidential Initiative Awards, Economic Development Awards and Small Business Research Loans.
The programs that were eliminated entirely were the Education and Training Program, Multidisciplinary Research Grants and the Industrial Fellowship program. Tolson said that education and training programs were cut because it is harder to provide metrics to show their value against the general assembly’s criteria. The value of these programs is evident in the longer term, he explained. A $2,000 grant one year won’t translate into 16 new jobs the next year.
But the Biotech Center is working to find partners who can pick up some of the worker training support that the Biotech Center offered. Programs in worker training and teacher training could be picked up by community colleges and Tolson said that the Biotech Center would share its training template with interested partners. But he acknowledged that financial constraints at community colleges could those institutions’ ability to pick up new programs.
The Biotech Center’s regional offices throughout the state remain intact, though the layoffs included some staff in those regional offices. Tolson said those offices serve an important role, particularly given the state’s stature in agricultural biotechnology.
Tolson also said that the Biotech Center will not be picking up any of the responsibilities or employees of the Biofuels Center of North Carolina, which is in the process of shutting down due to state budget reductions. Tolson said that biofuels responsibilities will fall under the Department of Agriculture and the energy division of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
