Create public good from your innovative ideas

Are you passionate about finding a solution to a social or environmental problem in your community? Interested in working at the intersection of advocacy and entrepreneurship? Or are you building a for-profit business that aims to do good? Today’s innovators strive to shape society and the economy in creative and positive ways, and it’s small steps along the way that lead to transformational change.

Innovate Carolina’s Office of Design and Innovation for the Public Good understands that innovation means more than creating the newest app, the latest technology or even robust revenue models. We will help you develop human centered mindsets, tools, and processes so you can translate your own ideas into innovative solutions that provide community and economic benefit in the state of North Carolina and beyond.

Explore our offerings

Innovate Carolina’s Design and Innovation for the Public Good team can help you learn, share and integrate human-centered design methods and tools to create more innovative outcomes for all. You’ll find new ways to maximize your impact and create strategies for ideas that improve lives and sustain our planet. We can also help you tap into a network of design and innovation experts who can bolster your work and connect you to additional resources provided by a network other departments and programs at UNC-Chapel Hill and beyond. For a full listing of resources, see our online resource directory.

TIIP-awards-card-cover

Translating Innovative Ideas for the Public Good (TIIP) Awards

Innovate Carolina’s unit of Design and Innovation for the Public Good is investing in innovative projects with the clear goals of co-creating, testing and scaling desirable, feasible and viable human centered solutions. The Translating Innovative Ideas for the Public Good (TIIP) Awards are open to any UNC faculty, staff or venture that is developing an idea, project or company that will translate the University’s best ideas to benefit the state of North Carolina and beyond.
Kyle IDEAS 2

Design Thinking and Innovation Recharge Services

Apply this creative problem-solving to your work so you can more quickly and fully understand the needs and wants of your customers and constituents. Through our design thinking programs and workshops, you’ll learn to “fail fast” and iterate your ideas to find solutions that will make a greater social impact, faster.
design-thinking-roi-header

Design Thinking Outcomes Collaborative

The Design Thinking Outcomes Collaborative is an international, interdisciplinary team of design thinking experts and practitioners from university, industry, and community-based settings.
map-the-system-art

Map the System Competition

Map the System is a global systems thinking competition hosted by Oxford University’s Said School of Business. Innovate Carolina’s Office of Social Innovation runs the local round of the competition for the UNC campus. During the competition, you create systems maps about problems you have a passion for solving. If chosen as the top UNC team, you can compete with other students in Oxford’s regional and global finals.
liz-chen-design-thinking

Carolina Graduate Certificate in Innovation for the Public Good

The certificate was developed by Innovate Carolina in partnership with three academic units: the College of Arts and Sciences (Public Policy), Gillings School of Global Public Health, and the School of Education. By earning this certificate, you’ll explore modern changemaking and acquire the mindset, tools and methods you need to solve complex problems across disciplines.
faculty-workshop-callahan

Faculty Innovation Workshop

Over the past decade, this workshop has given Carolina’s most entrepreneurial researchers and teachers the chance to develop new skills that help them turn their ideas into new innovation projects initiatives, nonprofits and startup companies.
accelerator-programs-nc

Resources for Minority and Female Entrepreneurs

Innovate Carolina has coordinated with entrepreneurial experts to publish a running list of resources available from organizations across the local region, state and country that support minority- and female-led startups and ventures.

Connect with our team

Our team is ready to strategize with you on how to scale your idea to make an impact.  

liz-chen-2.5x2.5

Liz Chen

Assistant Professor, Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health; Design Thinking Lead, Innovate Carolina (CIPG Inaugural Director)