Innovation and Economic Development | UNC-Chapel Hill
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Carolina is a place where innovators and entrepreneurs make a human, social and economic impact. We make purposeful transformations in the world by putting important ideas to use for the public good.
In the heart of an innovation district
At Carolina, innovation happens at the intersection of campus and community. Just a few steps from our classrooms and labs, you find yourself in downtown Chapel Hill’s quickly emerging innovation district. This is where promising startups, innovation-oriented companies and impact-driven non-profits come to grow and converge with talented students and faculty. It’s a place where local entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and top researchers coalesce to find inventive ways to work together. New markets emerge, careers expand and businesses thrive. In Chapel Hill, college town means entrepreneurial epicenter.
A hub for your innovation and impact
Carolina innovators are solving some of the world’s biggest problems. Through their ingenuity, they provide economic and social value in North Carolina and beyond: creating jobs, finding cures, combating diseases, fighting poverty, eliminating hunger, providing clean water and promoting social justice.
Innovate Carolina
is the University-wide initiative for innovation and entrepreneurship that provides a full-scale innovation hub for today’s impact-driven problem solvers. By visiting the
Innovate Carolina Junction
, an innovation hub and coworking space in the heart of downtown Chapel Hill, you can connect with an active entrepreneurial network. Tap into services and resources designed for students, faculty, alumni and people in local communities who want to launch startup companies, take new research discoveries to market and move important initiatives into the world.
Wherever you are on your innovation journey, Innovate Carolina provides the entrepreneurial tools and know-how to help your ideas thrive.
Explore our campus- and community-based
resource directory
. And connect with our
innovation hub
to take advantage of services that can help you take your impact-driven ideas further, faster:
Innovation strategy and impact
Technology commercialization
Startup accelerators and venture services
Design thinking
Market Research and competitive intelligence
Impact measurement and reporting
Investor programs
1,079
total Carolina-affiliated startups launched
$19.8 billion
in total funding raised by Carolina startups
$19.2 billion
in annual revenue earned by UNC-Chapel Hill startups (2023-24)
No. 17
in entrepreneurship education (U.S. News and World Report, 2024)
1,366
U.S. patents issued to Carolina inventors
478
Carolina-affiliated startups headquartered in North Carolina
15,789
people employed by UNC-Chapel Hill startups across North Carolina
A best practices report by Innovate Carolina offers in-depth insights from 11 university innovation hubs across the U.S., surfacing strategies and practices that can serve as a practical roadmap for innovation hubs nationwide.
How will university innovation hubs shape the future of work?
TIIP award program promotes stepping beyond traditional research methods by embracing creative, human-centered design to revolutionize public health interventions.
Communities of practice at BeAM use peer-to-peer learning to deepen skills
The first cohort of UNC-Chapel Hill faculty was recognized for advancing innovation, mentorship through their research.
Innovate Carolina Names Inaugural Members to National Academy of Inventors Chapter
Innovate Carolina
OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION
Launch Chapel Hill
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