Sparking Innovation and Entrepreneurship Across Campus

When the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation announced an initiative to promote entrepreneurship in a university setting, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill enthusiastically applied to be a pilot campus. Their ideas matched our objective to better link the broad array of activities on a major research campus with the undergraduate experience.

The Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative was the spark that ignited innovative ways to bring people together, putting ideas to work in the marketplace.The results have been very successful. From an initial focus on traditional business entrepreneurship, Carolina has expanded the concepts into civic, artistic and academic entrepreneurial endeavors. We have built relationships across disciplines and schools, and made entrepreneurial skills part of a liberal arts education. We now have an array of programs and a minor in entrepreneurship for non-business students, along with other activities.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of America’s best universities for entrepreneurs. Fortune Small Business magazine and The Princeton Review have said so, but I can attest to it from my own experiences.

When I came to Carolina as a chemistry professor, I found not only great peers and talented students, but also a larger community of scientists, industry executives and government researchers in The Research Triangle Park™ with similar interests.

The Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative was the spark that ignited innovative ways to bring people together, putting ideas to work in the marketplace.