Overview
Venture up the hill. Scale your innovation capacity.
At UNC-Chapel Hill’s innovation hub, entrepreneurial enthusiasts and innovative organizations make next-level moves. Our every day is future focused: Scaling up, finding inventive collaborations and going beyond business-as-usual.
It's the place where Innovate Carolina helps problem solvers converge to turn their ideas, discoveries and ventures into social and economic impact. And where entrepreneurs, researchers and industry professionals gather with top innovation talent, tools and resources. Propelled by diverse points of view, our hub offers creative spaces for inventive thinking, working and meeting in the heart of downtown Chapel Hill.
The future of work. Reinvented by you.
The Chapel Hill innovation hub is home to Innovate Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill’s central team for innovation and entrepreneurship. This team and its network of campus and community partners provides the expertise, tools and resources that innovation hub members need to scale up, expand into new markets and work smarter.
Resources
Co-Working Spaces
Our modern, collaborative workspaces are built for those who push the edge of how and where we work: Gig workers, corporate remotes, startups, small businesses, Carolina alumni looking for local workspaces, and out-of-town grads seeking a place to land while visiting Chapel Hill.
Venture Program
Our venture program features the new phases of Launch Chapel Hill, the award-winning downtown startup accelerator, and 1789, the University's student startup community. Join a cohort of local and campus-born startups that are quickly turning into high-growth, sustainable enterprises. You’ll work directly with our entrepreneurs-in-residence, receive mentorship, and gain access to business tools and technologies that help you turn now into next.
Innovation Services and Community Programs
Tap into a full suite of programs, tools, services and networking experiences. Our offerings are made for everyone from individual entrepreneurs and startups to social ventures and corporations. As part of our community, you can access human-centered design expertise, patent and market research, talent-based services, and offerings tailored to your specific needs.
Industry-Academic Collaborations
When startups, high-growth industries, corporations and universities intersect, we chart territory that we can’t cover alone. Experience a cross-hatching of talent and expertise among industry experts, faculty researchers and top students who can work in close proximity and explore mutual endeavors that would never materialize elsewhere.
Breakthrough Research
The hub is the conduit for bringing discoveries out of UNC-Chapel Hill’s scientific labs and into the community. Academic and industry innovators collaborate to share insights, build new partnerships and create inventive commercial pathways for emerging innovations in biosciences, social sciences and technology.
An innovation hub for all
Alumni
If you’re an alumnus of UNC-Chapel Hill, you understand. Your Carolina Blue connection to the University lasts a lifetime. Even when you leave Chapel Hill, the spirit of the place never leaves you. And now the innovation hub gives you a way to connect more closely – and tangibly – with the University. Your time as a Tar Heel can continue at the front door of the University, whether that means setting up a remote office for yourself or company – or a professional landing pad to use when you travel back to Chapel Hill. Carolina doesn’t just have to be in your mind. It can be part of your every day.
Corporations
Innovation is the heart of continual corporate growth. And with the innovation hub located just steps away from Carolina – named one of the world’s most innovative universities – you’re at the epicenter of emerging research and technologies. As a member of the hub, your company can gain new insights on leading-edge discoveries and commercial pathways, connect with innovation-ready student talent, and get a look at early ideas emerging from labs and startups. Partnering with Carolina researchers is also a great way to de-risk research that’s relevant to your business plans and tap into follow-on research funding.
Startups and Small Businesses
For startup founders and small-business employees, sometimes there’s nothing better than knowing that you’re not traveling the new venture journey alone. By joining the Chapel Hill innovation hub, you not only have access to top-tier workspaces and services, but also a community of current and former founders who have traveled the path that you're on now. That means connections to a large network of mentors and advisors to guide you, plus talented students, researchers, funders and strategic business partners who can help speed your next phase of business.
Remote and Gig Workers
For freelancers and remote corporates, the hub offers full flexibility. You can stay in your lane and work solo. Collaborate with other innovative independents. Or engage with mini teams from larger corporations to complement your shared professional skillsets and market potential. Plus, working in a space with top academic researchers and industry leaders can open different kinds of doors than you’ll find in your work-from-home digs.
Faculty and Students
For Carolina faculty and students, the intersections with industry- and community-based organizations – and with each other – result in creative work collisions and professional development opportunities that don’t happen on campus. Inventive partnerships between top faculty and corporate R&D divisions can spark possibilities unknown. Students get to explore the learning opportunities that come from working with other entrepreneurial-minded students and companies that are looking for fellows and interns.
136 E. Rosemary St. 137 E. Franklin St.
Chapel Hill, NC 27514