How can communities across the state expand their innovation economies?

Innovation is the modern economy’s fuel. As the primary source of new technologies, products, services, and practices that yield value, innovation is what creates new industries, makes existing ones globally competitive, and sustains economic growth and improved societal well-being. To grow the economy and improve North Carolinians’ economic well-being, we must increase our overall ability to be innovative, and spread that ability beyond the Triangle and Charlotte.

In response, the Institute for Issues and nine other statewide Partners have launched , an intensive two-year, cross-city learning collaborative supporting five North Carolina communities — Asheville, Greensboro, Pembroke, Wilson, Wilmington and the Carolina Coast — as they expand their innovation economies. Beyond intensive work with these communities, the initiative will publicly disseminate products, processes, and tools.