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INNOVATION AND
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
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. Our suite of services and resources are 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 make your ideas work.
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:
- 1,079total Carolina-affiliated startups launched
- $19.8 billionin total funding raised by Carolina startups
- $19.2 billionin annual revenue earned by UNC-Chapel Hill startups (2023-24)
- No. 17in entrepreneurship education (U.S. News and World Report, 2024)
- 1,366U.S. patents issued to Carolina inventors
- 478Carolina-affiliated startups headquartered in North Carolina
- 15,789people employed by UNC-Chapel Hill startups across North Carolina
Economic development for Carolina communities
Tar Heels don’t rest idly on campus. We’re busy making our communities better places to work and live. Our passion for economic and community impact is reflected in the
Find out how you can get involved with other students, alumni, startups, established businesses and non-profits to:
• Beautify downtown
• Develop an innovation district
• Open innovation hub spaces in Chapel Hill and beyond
Using finance to catalyze greater changeJohn MacAree pursued a career in sustainability, and attending UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School equipped him with a comprehensive understanding of the energy sector and the financial knowledge necessary to advance sustainability initiatives.
Communities of practice at BeAM use peer-to-peer learning to deepen skillsThe Be a Maker Network's Communities of Practice is helping more Tar Heels become makers, teaching students to use the tools and equipment that fill Carolina's makerspaces.
Carolina shares entrepreneurial teaching and innovation with Japanese universitiesVisiting participants were introduced to Innovate Carolina and Launch Chapel Hill, as well as Carolina Angels Network, an investing platform that supports the Carolina startup community with funding and advice from experienced alumni.