CHAPEL HILL –  The 21st Century Vision project is continuing to push research and entrepreneurship to advance UNC in years to come. And it’s just one of the many items on Board of Trustees’ agenda for this week.

“The focus of today was commercialization of technology. What we had here was a preliminary report of a task force that was charged last fall by the Chancellor’s recommendations about how the university can do a better job on the commercialization of technology,” said Barbara Entwisle, UNC Vice Chancellor of Research.

The committee, Using Research to Solve the World’s Problems, is one of the committees under the 21st Century Vision plan that Chancellor Holden announced in May of last year.

Entwisle co-chairs the committee with BoT member Lowry Caudill.

Maryann Feldman, professor of Public Policy at UNC, did a survey on the entrepreneurial endeavors of faculty members and post-docs.

“The real reason they are doing this is because they want their research to make a difference. I think that’s so important to understand about motivation,” Entwisle said.

The committee talked about the importance of encouraging entrepreneurship and how it can positively impact the UNC business ecosystem.

Judith Cone, special assistant to the chancellor, presented a two-year progress report examining students and their start-up companies.

As committee member and Trustee Steven Lerner said, “Money flows where the ideas are.”

Entwisle also identified several areas where the University needs to improve.

According information presented by the committee, UNC does research with out getting commercial outcomes. That’s why the committee wants to identify ways to increase effectiveness. They believe by doing this, jobs will be creating in North Carolina, and more importantly, the University will benefit.

The committee also talked about partnering with Duke, N.C. State or a resource in Research TrianglePark to form an engineering partnership. Another topic of discussion is the convergence technology and social media, and how that’s become a part of student life.

The committee also addressed the convergence technology and social media, and how that’s become a part of student life, in addition to the state of engineering at UNC. They talked about partnering with Duke, N.C. State or a resource in Research Triangle Park to form an engineering partnership. UNC is one of only two schools ranked in the top 20 with out an engineering course of study.

The committee is putting together an all-encompassing progress report to be released in May. It will focus on the committee’s impact on UNC, commercialization, and how to support the faculty in responding to research opportunities

College Access & Completion, another committee of the 21st Century Vision, also met Wednesday

WCHL will have full coverage of the meeting and bring you any updates on the search for a new chancellor.

Click here view the BoT’s full agenda.