Research at UNC-Chapel Hill fuels North Carolina's innovation economy: research activity at Carolina ranks 11th in the nation.

• Position: UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL

At UNC Chapel Hill, research is big business. Thanks to strategic investments by the General Assembly in facilities, labs and infrastructure, annual research awards have risen from $249 million in 1996 to nearly $800 million. Today, Carolina ranks 11th in the nation in dollar volume of university research.

Ninety percent of those dollars flow to North Carolina from outside sources--foundations, corporations and the federal government. They feed a thriving enterprise that creates technologies, spins out businesses and attracts global industries to the state. Critical to UNC's success are its centers and institutes, which pull together powerful scientific teams to compete for major research awards.

UNC's research employs scientists, technicians and personnel in all 100 North Carolina counties, and purchases supplies and services from vendors across the state.

Spawning businesses with global reach

Starting from a small trailer on the UNC campus, clinical-trials giant Quintiles is now a Fortune 500 company and the world's largest provider of pharmaceutical development and commercial outsourcing services.

Staying close to its roots, Quintiles is headquartered in North Carolina and employs 2,100 people in the Triangle and more than 27,000 worldwide. With this global network, it has played a role in developing and commercializing the top 50 best-selling drugs on the world market. Quintiles is now a leading corporate sponsor of research at UNC.

Creating partners for N.C. industry

Founded by UNC professor Joe DeSimone and two colleagues, Liquidia Technologies is at the cutting edge of the rapidly growing nanotechnology industry. Using technology developed at UNC, Liquidia's researchers decipher how human cells absorb nanoparticles and how those particles circulate through the body. Nanoparticles can deliver drugs to diseased cells with pinpoint accuracy. Liquidia's research promises more effective methods for locating diseased cells and targeting drugs in procedures such as chemotherapy.

The company's groundbreaking work attracted the attention of GlaxoSmithKline, its neighbor in Research Triangle Park. In 2012, they signed a multiyear deal worth several hundred million dollars, giving GSK access to Liquidia's proprietary nanotechnology for vaccines and drug development. Liquidia employs about 70 people and recently attracted $10 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop safer, more effective vaccines.

Turning social science into...