Terri Lomax says researchers sometimes tailor their requests.
N.C. State University's vice chancellor said that a lot of the earmarks the college requests are for orphaned research that does not fit into existing programs through the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health or the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Often, it's because it's not basic research but not yet commercially viable.
But it can also be because there is no federal program that covers the topic, she said, citing a National Textiles Center on campus that looks at new methods and markets for textiles.
"There's not a federal agency with a clear mandate for providing research on textiles," she said.
She said that researchers often look for ways to fit their research into existing programs, such as military research or even the NASA budget. That's how an earmark came about that would study the effects of the Martian atmosphere on plants.
"It has lots of other uses for agriculture, such as understanding how plants to respond to stress conditions in the environment such as drought or global warming," she said.
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