Catalyzing Creative Concepts to Solve Commercial Challenges

NC State University research helps turn today’s ideas into tomorrow’s solutions. That’s core to our land-grant mission. The Chancellor’s Innovation Fund (CIF), a competitive internal seed fund, has proven to be a powerful way we support that mission. 

Chancellor Randy Woodson established the CIF in 2010 to help more NC State research bridge the gap between public and private funding — and ultimately turn into technology that both benefits consumers and addresses pressing problems.

The CIF awards a select few of NC State’s best and brightest innovators tens of thousands each year to support short-term, commercially focused research projects. Over the course of the project — and for as long as needed afterward — awardees also receive help from the Office of Research Commercialization (ORC), which manages the CIF. ORC comprises business experts, intellectual property lawyers and others who can get researchers to start thinking more like startup founders — and make sure they’re in the right place and in touch with the right people at the right time.