As defined in our strategic Research Roadmap, one of our core objectives is to ensure that Carolina’s world-class discoveries and innovations reach the people who matter most: the citizens of North Carolina, our external partners, and our Carolina community.
Since we launched the Roadmap in May 2024, we have redesigned our platforms and strategies to better articulate the immense value and profound impact of our research enterprise. This month’s Mile Marker highlights the strategic, targeted efforts of the Office of Research Communications (ORC) team to highlight the extraordinary return on investment of our research enterprise.
How We Communicate
UNC Research is a thriving enterprise, with brilliant faculty and student investigators who are making incredible discoveries across a wide variety of disciplines. A key goal of the Roadmap is to transform our communications to better articulate the value and impact of these discoveries. To this end, we have enhanced our communication infrastructure and branding with an investment in strategic communication. We now focus on connecting people to content in the most direct and engaging ways possible with a fresh start to better reflect the size and scope of our modern research community.
For the 40th anniversary of the University’s research magazine, we refreshed the magazine’s branding and retired the long-loved Endeavors name to become UNC Research Stories, giving our readers a more direct connection to its content and highlighting a strategic focus on the UNC Research priorities that will shape the future of Carolina.
These efforts were recognized with a Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) CASE Circle of Excellence Bronze Award and Best of District III Award this year to honor the newly named print edition of our magazine. Our team was also recognized with three other CASE awards for individual stories and photos by ORC interim Deputy Director for Research Communications Alyssa LaFaro and visual content producer Megan Mendenhall. These awards recognize the best in higher-ed communications, and we are so proud of this well-earned validation of our new strategic communications efforts and our incredibly talented team.
Since the launch of the Roadmap, our communications team has also led a massive refresh of research.unc.edu, to create a centralized portal for researchers to efficiently access information and resources to carry out their research. The portal also includes key information to inform external partners about opportunities to collaborate, and it is a nexus to share our findings with the public. The new customer-service focused site, developed by ORC’s web team of Darren Abrecht and Ben Kaminsky in partnership with a vendor, now has enhanced navigation and, in the past year, has supported a quarter of a million visitors in a clear and engaging way.
In March, we also launched a new UNC Research Impact webpage to share the tremendous value and impact of our research. This page contains a wealth of content that highlights Carolina’s research and its reach across our state, including an interactive map that shows how our research benefits all 100 North Carolina counties. In fact, a recent analysis shows that Carolina’s return on investment is among the highest in the country. The site also highlights our strategic research priority areas that will produce the exciting breakthroughs of tomorrow.
In addition, given the dynamic nature of the federal landscape, our nimble communications team created two additional resources to help our research community navigate federal uncertainties: a federal actions webpage and a federal shutdown webpage. The need for these resources is clearly demonstrated by the tens of thousands of visits to these pages, which we continually update to serve our research community and external stakeholders who are interested in impact to our operations.
What We Communicate
Given the federal landscape, our central messaging has been strategically focused on communicating the value and impact of our federally funded research. To this end, our communicators increased our impact-related content through our “UNC Research is N.C.” campaign to showcase the incredible impacts of our research portfolio on the state.
This coordinated approach was designed to ensure that decision-makers have the evidence they need to champion our research enterprise. The approach also aims to foster a deeper understanding among North Carolinians and American taxpayers of the tangible returns on their investments in our research. To engage our university community, we created a strategy and toolkit to help units across campus tell their research stories through unified messaging.
The campaign began in February and remains active, highlighted by an impressive full campus-wide “research takeover” in May. For a full week, schools and programs across campus joined together under consistent messaging to showcase the breadth and impact of research on as many communications platforms as possible, including website banners and social media posts.
Our thought leader ad on LinkedIn gained more than 440,000 impressions. And self-reported results from participating campus partners for this one-week takeover included a combined 659,000 impressions across social media accounts and 38,000 website visits. Through this campaign, we told the cohesive story of how UNC-Chapel Hill research benefits the communities we serve.
The campaign has been a remarkable success for the UNC Research platforms, too.
When comparing LinkedIn metrics for the six months preceding the campaign to the first six months of the campaign:
- Reactions increased 73%
- Unique visitors increased 90.5%
- New followers increased 66%
When comparing Instagram metrics for before and after the campaign:
- Reach increased 107.6%
- Profile visits increased 88.76%
This initiative also earned its chief architect, Carleigh Gabryel, recognition as the Network for Research Professional Strategic Communicator of the Year.
Campaign posts continue to be some of the most popular posts on both UNC Research platforms, proving that this campaign concept resonates with target audiences and is a viable long-term strategy. The campaign continues to leverage the monthly stories of impact shared through the UNC Research Stories platform to highlight compelling narratives of life-changing research and game-changing breakthroughs, illustrating the tangible benefits of research for citizens within our state and far beyond.
Why We Communicate
The theme of the campaign was carried over into this year’s University Research Week. Held October 20-24, the 2025 celebration included:
- 50+ events held over five days
- 220+ attendees at the inaugural Graduate Research Symposium
- 380+ staff and students tuned in for Het Talks presentations
- 630+ Tar Heel attendees at the Research & Discovery Fair
- 2,000+ total attendees across all events
The Research & Discovery Fair was an especially exciting event that provided immediate access for undergraduates to engage directly with exciting research and experiential opportunities. Students attending the event interacted with 26 labs demonstrating projects and experiments and showcasing cutting-edge innovations that benefit our state and society, like: emerging technologies for PFAS remediation from N.C. waters, new AI-driven tools and devices to improve human health care, advances in AI research and applications, and applied biomechanical engineered solutions that help people maintain high quality of life while aging.
One faculty member who participated in the fair reported that hundreds of students visited her booth, and 51 of those students submitted interest forms to work at her lab. This wonderful event truly highlighted Carolina’s research excellence and provided pathways for our students (our state’s future workforce) to see themselves playing a role in making the discoveries that transform society.
I am proud of the effort of all our team members, especially graphic designer Corina Prassos, who makes everything about UNC Research look polished, accessible, and informative. Corina created the beautiful branding for University Research Week and the fair, executed the design concept for the “UNC Research is N.C.” campaign and worked with over a dozen units to facilitate the campus-wide takeover, led the rebranding of the UNC Research Stories magazine, and provides design support to numerous research units at UNC-Chapel Hill and 14 OVCR centers and institutes
Our value and impact define who we are as a leading public research university. We take pride in demonstrating the extraordinary return on investment that we deliver to the people and partners of North Carolina, because being public is not just our classification; it’s our purpose. By sharpening our message, modernizing how we communicate, and grounding every story in measurable impact, we are ensuring that the power of UNC Research is seen, understood, and celebrated. This clarity and conviction will carry us through challenging times and propel our continued growth and leadership for years to come.