NC research universities are helping to drive the Triangle’s tech surge
Hope and confidence are on the rise as North Carolina celebrates several major economic development wins, paired with continued vaccine rollout. The state’s higher education system has long been a key economic driver for our communities. As North Carolina rebounds from the pandemic, higher education is uniquely positioned to advance the economy forward.
Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, ‘85 NC State mechanical engineering alumnus, says he is proud to create opportunities in the community where he grew up. The company’s new campus in Research Triangle Park is expected to generate $1.5 billion in economic benefits annually for the state, creating at least 3,000 high-paying new jobs in machine learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering and other cutting-edge fields. These are areas that NC State excels in — creating extraordinary opportunities for our students and researchers.
Apple’s news follows a series of significant job-creation announcements. FUJIFILM Diosynth will invest $2 billion and create 725 jobs to develop a new biomanufacturing facility in Holly Springs. NC State is partnering on customized workforce training through our Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center and creating collaborations with our researchers in areas important to the company’s innovation strategy.
CEO Martin Meeson tells me that academic partnerships are an essential part of his organization’s current and future workforce growth. He emphasizes that collaboration is key to our collective success, particularly as we look to meet the ever-increasing demand for biopharma manufacturing talent in North Carolina.
In addition to growth in health sciences encouraged by the pandemic, the Triangle’s tech sector is booming. Google’s plans to open a 1,000-job cloud engineering hub in Durham will make the Triangle one of only five locations, alongside New York, Silicon Valley and two sites in Seattle, with such a facility. Again, the state’s strong higher education ecosystem is playing an important role.
Lilyn Hester, Google’s head of public affairs for the Southeast, cites the region’s research universities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in feeding the company’s recruiting needs, creating research partnerships and helping Google lead in the next evolution of computing.
To meet the growing needs of data science research, education and workforce development in North Carolina, NC State recently launched our Data Science Academy — an incubator for training and long-term research partnerships.
Access to talent remains dominant in corporate real estate decisions, outweighing cost and other factors. States with robust education systems provide strong talent pipelines and, as a result, positive economic impact.
In Raleigh, nearly half of the population over the age of 25 holds a bachelor’s degree or higher, ahead of Austin, Atlanta and Nashville, and slightly behind San Francisco and Boston. Raleigh is also high in growth across STEM completions at 40.3%, again ahead of Austin, Atlanta and Nashville. This data is based on an independent study commissioned by Wake County Economic Development that contrasts Raleigh with the 100 largest U.S. metro areas.
As a public land-grant university, NC State is committed to partnering with the public and private sectors to enhance teaching and learning. Our collaborations with industry have launched 190 startups, brought more than 600 products to market and issued 1,500 patents.
These partnerships solve complex problems, provide real-world training for faculty and students, strengthen statewide economic development, create a more skilled workforce and increase exceptional employment opportunities for students.
NC State is proud to play a major role in supporting the economy. Through unique public-private partnerships, North Carolina is well positioned to lead the nation out of the pandemic and into a stronger economic future.
Randy Woodson is the chancellor at NC State University and serves on the Research Triangle Park Board of Directors.
