Research Mission

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a long tradition of supporting research on significant public policy issues and allocating intellectual and financial resources toward research on the state, the status of its citizens, and its attempts to make social progress. The Carolina Institute for Public Policy aims to be a focal point for public policy research and outreach. The purpose of the Carolina Institute is to provide an environment within which top scholars in fields such as education policy, economic development policy, health policy, public finance, and environmental policy can thrive, producing top quality research and engaging with the public, policymakers, journalists and other scholars on significant policy issues. The Carolina Institute plans to support the policy research enterprise and communication of the findings by creating a visible, central Institute within the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill, which can:

1. Link policy scholars with those seeking information on policy alternatives;
2. develop research to investigate new, emerging and under-studied public policy issues; and
3. convene scholars, policymakers and the public to discuss, debate, and deliberate important public policy issues.

The vision for the Carolina Institute is to become an organization that can support and enhance public policy research centers, programs, and projects and inform policymakers, journalists and the public about significant public policy issues facing North Carolina, the nation, and countries across the globe. The Carolina Institute will not be limited to a single policy issue or to any particular perspective on solving social problems. The Carolina Institute will develop projects and programs of research on particular topics when scholarly interests and external support align to signify that rigorous policy research and lively debate is needed for society to progress.

The Carolina Institute will serve as a host for scholarly research and a locus for outreach activities. In response to a survey of faculty at UNC Chapel Hill, 210 faculty members indicated they were engaged in policy related research, citing child policy, disability policy, economic development policy, education policy, energy policy, environmental policy among others as areas in which they were engaged. In addition, the faculty indicated a strong desire to engage in interdisciplinary research and to make their research more widely known to policymakers, journalists, and the public. Accordingly, the Carolina Institute will provide key resources for sponsored program development and administration, data management, data analysis, human resource management, communications, meeting logistics, and other functions that are critical to policy research and outreach functions.