| UNC-CH
University programs – both curricular and co-curricular – that support engagement are popular and growing. Engagement in the community, state and world is a key impact measure of a university’s effectiveness and return-on-investment (ROI) for its stakeholders.
- Methods of engagement include:
- Community service
- Service learning
- Engaged research (including community-based participatory, government-university-industry partnerships)
- Training and technical assistance
- Policy implementation
- Capacity building
- Economic development (including startups, internships and workforce development)
Alignment with APLU Innovation & Economic Prosperity Framework
Innovate Carolina, the campus-wide initiative for innovation and entrepreneurship at UNC-Chapel Hill, created a novel, proprietary database to help the University’s I&E (Innovation and Entrepreneurship) and engagement programs manage applications, membership and alumni participants. Through this database and the related I&E Impact Dashboard, day-to-day operations of the programs become more efficient and gain capacity, and outcomes are easily measured and reported. The database enables framing of the data with the APLU’s Innovation and Economic Prosperity (IEP) framework:
- Developing human capital and the future workforce.
- Infusing research, ideas and entrepreneurship into the community.
- Building community-connected partnerships that improve how citizens work and live.
Innovate Carolina Network Database
The Innovate Carolina Network Database is part of our larger engagement platform that also includes the Innovate Carolina Startups Database. If you are a current Innovate Carolina Network Database user who needs assistance, please fill out this form.
- User friendly. Designed to complement existing program operations.
- Streamlines processing of applications. Connected to custom application forms for each program, background processes automate accepting and declining applications, while tracking metrics.
- On-point data on demand. Allows a research team to maintain statistics, deliver reports and answer questions immediately.
- Innovation partnerships. Gathers, tracks and reports detailed results from more than 25 I&E partner programs on campus, including UNC-Chapel Hill’s incubators, accelerators, services and curricular programs.
- Journey of an idea. Monitors which I&E/engagement programs serve as supportive touch points to individual faculty and student ideas as they grow into matrure policies, organizations or startup ventures.
- Measures engagement. Enables greater impact measurement via the connections among UNC-Chapel Hill programs and community/industry partners. Includes type and depth of engagement.
- Participant and alumni communications. Learners, mentors, investors and alumni become easily accessible via multiple channels, including email, social media and website updates.
Note: Current database users can access How-To Documents on the MS Teams website.
Contact our team
