The head of N.C. State University research says they asked for less than in years past.

Terri Lomax, vice chancellor for research and graduate studies at the Raleigh college, said that she decided to be more choosy about the special appropriations it requested from the state's Congressional delegation.

"I insisted that we be more selective," she said. 

She asked deans at the college to rank their requests, then she and several staffers went through them before presenting them to the chancellor's office and the University of North Carolina's general administration.

The projects were then presented to different members of the delegation, based on their interests. (Reps. Bob Etheridge and Mike McIntyre, for example, were asked to help fund sweet potato research because they have farmers in their districts.)

In all, she said the university asked for 23 earmarks, the same number that members of the House requested for it. From there, they'll then get peer-reviewed at the appropriate agencies and checked by Congressional committees.

"They actually get more thoroughly reviewed than traditional research grants," she said. 

Previously: N.C. State top earmark college in North Carolina.

An earmark from three state Democrats would study sweet potatoes.

Reps. Bob Etheridge of Lillington, Brad Miller of Raleigh and Mike McIntyre of Lumberton, have all requested federal appropriations for research on the state vegetable at N.C. State University.

Etheridge and Miller both sought $300,000 to study Plectric aliena, an invasive grub that has the potential to decimate sweet potato crops.

"Though present in the U.S. for nearly a century, the insect remained relatively obscure until 2006 when devastating infestations occurred in several hundred acres of sweet potatoes in North Carolina," Etheridge wrote in his request. "Now, infestation is widespread and growing."

McIntyre asked for $800,000 to "carry out basic and applied research" on the vegetable.

"They are becoming an increasingly important crop with deployment in schools and being part of a healthy diet," he wrote in his request.