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Research

Research is fundamental to the mission of UNC Charlotte. New knowledge and creative works change the world and shape the future of the University. Charlotte values research in all its forms, including scholarly inquiry, discovery, exploration, innovation, entrepreneurship, creative activities, community engagement and/or interdisciplinary endeavors.

UNC Charlotte’s research endeavors are distinct:

  • Among the 229 public doctoral-granting research universities in the United States, 124 hold the Carnegie Community Engaged University classification. Carnegie’s community engagement classification signifies that UNC Charlotte collaborates with its larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in the context of partnership and reciprocity
  • UNC Charlotte is among the 80 public universities that have earned the APLU's Innovation and Economic Prosperity designation. The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities designation recognizes that UNC Charlotte has demonstrated a meaningful, ongoing and substantial commitment to economic and community development, growth and economic opportunity

Significant research activities are focused in UNC System recognized centers and institutes. And in 2023, Charlotte launched 12 new pilot centers to foster synergistic research initiatives. In 2022, Ventureprise became the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Retired faculty member creates fund to support nursing research

August 20, 2019
Ann Mabe Newman ’78 dedicated much of her 34-year teaching career to nursing research. Now in retirement, her devotion to that effort and to the School of Nursing continues through a $25,000 gift established in her name.

Urban Institute Research Faculty Fellows to seek ways to better the region

August 14, 2019
A new program designed to identify solutions for some of the pressing needs and issues facing the greater Charlotte region is getting underway this fall at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute.

Evidence of the 587/586 BCE Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem found in Mount Zion excavation

August 12, 2019
Researchers digging at UNC Charlotte’s ongoing archaeological excavation on Mount Zion in Jerusalem have announced a second significant discovery from the 2019 season–clear evidence of the Babylonian conquest of the city from 587/586 BCE.

Faculty share expertise in medical journal tech issue

July 23, 2019
The latest issue of the North Carolina Medical Journal (NCMJ) focuses on how technology and big data can impact health care in North Carolina. The issue was co-edited by Michael Thompson, associate chair of the UNC Charlotte Department of Public Health Sciences, and Michael Dulin, director of the Academy for Population Health Innovation.

Archaeological evidence verifies long-doubted medieval accounts of First Crusade conquest

July 22, 2019
The UNC Charlotte-led archaeological dig on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion has been going on for over a decade, and through stratigraphic evidence, the archaeologists have been able to confirm the 11th century date of the 17-meter-wide by 4-meter-deep ditch, which abutted the Fatimid city wall (built in the same place as the current wall near the current Zion Gate).

Students’ summer research efforts to be presented at symposium

July 19, 2019
When Jackson Poulnott, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering technology, learned that young girls with limb differences wanted prosthetic hands with removable fingernails so they can change their nail color, he set out to make that happen. He is one of more than 100 undergraduate students who will present their research Friday, July 26, at UNC Charlotte’s Summer Research Symposium.

Civil engineering students win national innovation contest

July 15, 2019
A student team from UNC Charlotte’s William States Lee College of Engineering won the 2019 American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) National Student Innovation Contest recently held near Washington, D.C. Civil engineering students Michael Murray, Bryan Moreno and Nathan Lindholm swept the competition, taking first place in the Entrepreneur Category, winning the Audience Award and being named...

Distinguished Dissertation Award winners named

July 10, 2019
Lauren Austin ’18 Ph.D. and Amanda Burmeister are the 2019 recipients of the Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Awards, presented by the UNC Charlotte Graduate School to recognize outstanding research and scholarship by a doctoral student.

Associate dean authors book chapter

July 9, 2019
A chapter by Associate Dean of Performing Arts Services Dean Adams appears in “The Oxford Handbook of Musical Theatre Screen Adaptations,” published this month by Oxford University Press. The book, edited by Dominic McHugh, traces how the genre of the stage-to-screen musical has evolved since the early decades of sound film. Adams's chapter, "The Producers and Hairspray: The Hazards and Rewards...

Drug companies’ sexually explicit ads reaching too many youngsters

July 8, 2019
Virtually every day, millions of children and adolescents are being bombarded by sexually explicit direct-to-consumer advertising, despite pharmaceutical CEOs’ claims to the contrary.

Urban Institute wins national award for project on evictions

June 27, 2019
The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) presented UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute and Mecklenburg County its annual G. Thomas Kingsley Impact Award in recognition of a research project related to the effects of evictions.

Visiting Fulbright Fellow collaborating with engineering professor

June 26, 2019
Roisin Hyde, a Ph.D. student from Ireland, is using her Fulbright Fellowship to expand her studies of incorporating waste materials into the manufacturing of concrete. She selected UNC Charlotte in order to work with the Lee College of Engineering’s Brett Tempest, a pioneering researcher in the development of coal fly ash concrete.