Innovation-in-Action Spaces

A constellation of places where innovators can thrive

Where do ideas live? At first, their footprint is tiny. They only occupy the space of a fleeting thought. The ah-ha moment. A sketch on the back of the napkin. Or maybe a paragraph or two written out by hand.

But as ideas begin to grow, so does their innovative potential – and the space needed to keep them moving forward.

To bring their ideas to life, faculty and student innovators need physical spaces where they can meet, work, experiment, test and collaborate. Carolina has already created a variety of innovation spaces on campus. But as the number of entrepreneurs at the University continue to grow, future spaces are needed to meet surging demand. Transformative work is taking place in innovation programs and labs centered in specific schools or departments. But faculty and students are increasingly looking for facilities where they can connect and collaborate with researchers and entrepreneurs from many different fields outside their immediate area.

How this opportunity makes a difference
At Carolina, we envision a connected innovation corridor that includes space on and off campus – one that bridges the arts, sciences, labs and local industry. These innovation-in-action spaces will be close to one another. They’ll also be diverse in variety to meet entrepreneurs and startup ventures at every stage of their innovation journeys. These spaces will include

• Proof-of-concept center where innovators can develop prototypes and assess market feasibility. This is how the University will ensure time is spend on ideas with real potential.
• Wet lab where life sciences faculty and researchers can grow their young startup companies and bring high-impact discoveries and therapies to market.
• Maker spaces where the UNC community can use 3D printing and other technologies and tools to design and make physical objects for education, research, entrepreneurship.
• Co-working and shared-support spaces where entrepreneurs, enterprising startups and campus leaders can work, hold meetings and participate in incubator and accelerator programs.

Why your gift matters
Your gift is essential to creating places where student and faculty entrepreneurs can push their ideas forward. By helping to support the development of new locations for innovation, you will give faculty, student and community entrepreneurs with different areas of expertise the spaces they need to connect and collaborate. You’ll also help to create an overall innovation district that engages the neighboring community and attracts future student and faculty innovators who seek places where they can grow their ideas.