Through the Housing and Urban Development EDI Account, which will go to the North Carolina Research Campus. Funding for this project will provide needed high speed optical networking between the campus and other academic and research intensive institutions within the state. Researchers will require high speed connectivity to conduct their experiments, engage in collaborative activities with other researchers, and to access large data stores. The research campus has been and will continue to be a very high profile endeavor at all layers of government in the state. Interconnectedness is crucial for maintaining lasting relationships between academic, government, and private institutions within our scope. It is paramount for the growth and success of the campus. The success of this project is important for local and state governments as the research campus is helping to provide jobs for an economically depressed area of the state. Specifically, the campus has created numerous jobs which have replaced the thousands of textile manufacturing jobs which have left southwest North Carolina. In addition, the project benefits the federal government as it provides high speed optical networking for one of the poorest regions of the state which has no strong high speed optical infrastructure.