A Look Back at 2024
What did we learn in 2024? UNC System researchers have the expertise, innovation, and drive to outcompete their peers – both across our nation and around the world.
I felt that was a true statement when I led UNC-Chapel Hill’s research commercialization team. I know it’s true now that I’ve spent the past 18 months meeting in-depth with researchers and administrators at every university in the UNC System.
In 2024, NCInnovation approved eight pilot research grants supporting projects that provide new ways to refine lithium, treat melanoma, decontaminate water from PFAS, and more. At our four innovation network hubs, our team engaged with the research community to develop the pipeline of research with marketplace applications. They built partnerships with industry in and across the regions they serve. And just a few weeks ago, we finalized plans to expand our presence at three additional universities in the east and west, further strengthening our reach and impact.
But this is just the beginning. In our first full, statewide call for NCInnovation grant funding last month, more than 150 researchers from 15 of the 16 UNC System institutions submitted applications. We are humbled and excited at the level of demand for supporting proofs of concept that have the potential to make real-world impact.
The idea that American universities are key drivers of innovation and technology is not new – it has underpinned American policy for decades. American universities spark discoveries, which the private sector can then transform into commercial success. We aim to support university faculty so their discoveries can become solutions to market problems, to the economic benefit of the communities in which they originate.
Our mission is clear: to make North Carolina THE Innovation State.
In 2024, we put NCInnovation’s model into practice. In 2025, we’re going to scale it up. The enthusiastic response from industry looking to grow through partnership with academia, the warm response from university researchers and campus leaders, and the remarkable quality of technologies applying for funding have been truly inspiring. I can’t wait for what 2025 will bring. Below are some of the highlights from the past year.
Sincerely,
Michelle Bolas, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer
A Look Back at 2024
NCInnovation approved and funded eight pilot research grants, showcasing the amazing work happening at UNC System institutions all over North Carolina.
UNC Greensboro Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr., reflected what we’re hearing all over the state: “UNC Greensboro is proud of Dr. Hemali Rathnayake and the pioneering research she leads in the development of a cost-effective and efficient lithium refining process. The funding support from state legislators and NCInnovation is vital to continuing this applied research.”
Read about Dr. Kristen Dellinger’s work at N.C. A&T in overcoming the “blood-brain barrier” to deliver treatment for neurodegenerative disorders.
Watch Dr. Sukumar Kamalasadan explain to WBTV his technology to improve power grid reliability.
Read in the Smoky Mountain News about the technology Drs. Brian Byrd and Scott Huffman are developing to better identify carriers of mosquito-borne disease.
For more coverage of NCInnovation’s exciting work in 2024, click here.
NCInnovation finalized plans this year to expand our physical “hub” locations to three additional universities, bringing the total to seven UNC System institutions. NCInnovation’s regional directors spend all day, every day meeting with faculty researchers and industry partners.
They’re jacks-of-all-trades, connecting companies with research needs to university researchers with potential solutions, providing guidance to researchers on next steps in product development, getting IP protection for university research that needs to be secured, supporting researchers as they define their technology’s market niche, and much more.
In sum, they’re building the foundation for regional innovation ecosystems in which academia, industry, and finance are all connected to one another.
In partnership with NC IDEA, we identified “entrepreneurs-in-residence” (EIR) to offer business mentorship to university researchers who may be more comfortable in a laboratory than a board room. The EIRs will collaborate with NCInnovation research grantees on the basics of technology commercialization, including customer discovery, market viability, and more.
The NCInnovation endowment received its full funding per the 2023-25 state budget.
This morning, the endowment sits at almost $512 million, even after disbursing more than $4 million to support research.
That means NCInnovation has funded university research that has commercial promise, established and expanded innovation network hubs around the state, identified business development mentors, and more – all while increasing the value of state funds in the NCInnovation endowment.
We also exceeded our $25 million threshold in private philanthropic commitments. The leaders of some of the best-known businesses in North Carolina and America have committed charitable dollars to support NCInnovation’s mission.
These leaders recognize the promise that NCInnovation holds to be a national model in nurturing homegrown, made-in-America university innovation.
The research born on America’s universities has long been a key driver of our country’s technological might, and we all know North Carolina boasts the best public university system in the country. In 2025, NCInnovation will scale up its support for the amazing, real-world research happening on campuses all over the state.
NCInnovation is 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation focused intensely on accelerating commercialized innovation from North Carolina’s universities. NCInnovation deploys funding, mentors, and support services so that North Carolina university proofs-of-concept turn into companies and create jobs that remain in North Carolina. Learn more at NCInnovation.org.
