Research & Evaluation
Community businesses and organizations need not go abroad to find partners for world-class research and evaluation. Located close to home, talented UNCG researchers, students, and scholars seek collaborators for the mutually beneficial exchange, exploration, and application of knowledge, information, and resources.
Why UNCG?
UNCG promotes a vigorous and robust learning environment for high quality research and evaluation. We stay up to date on the newest technologies, methods, and research ensuring that the university offers cutting edge applications for solving real-world issues in our community. The experiences and expertise of our faculty, staff, and students on a wide range of topics and methods make UNCG a great partner for addressing research questions and evaluating programs.
Where to Go
Below you will find links to offices or databases to help identify faculty and staff based on their areas of specialty.
Nonprofit Evaluation Support Program
The Nonprofit Evaluation Support Program ( NESP) aims to increase the program evaluation capacity of nonprofit organizations, with a particular emphasis on those organizations in the Piedmont Triad Region of North Carolina. Supported by the Department of Educational Research Methodology and the SERVE Center, NESP helps nonprofit organizations implement program evaluation activities and develop the necessary capacity to sustain such activities over time. A range of services are offered, including direct program evaluation support customized to individual organizations, and capacity-building professional development training that include webinars, workshops, and online programming. Organizations that would like to request assistance from NESP may contact the UNCG Referral Desk at 336-505-8994, or communityengagement@uncg.edu.
Center for Community-Engaged Design
The Center for Community-Engaged Design (CC-ED) is an interdisciplinary research center that fosters community/university partnerships for meaningful research and design of the built and natural environments. CC-ED collaborates with community partners, non-profit organizations, and municipal departments to address design-related projects in underserved areas and for underrepresented populations in the Piedmont-Triad area. Through community-engaged processes of research, service, visioning, teaching, and learning, CC-ED brings innovative design thinking and methodologies to bear in areas where resources are most limited.
Center for Housing and Community Studies
The complexity of social, economic, and structural factors that have created such lasting social problems as substandard housing, segregation, homelessness, and sustainable community development demand a multidisciplinary, multi-method, community-engaged approach. The Center for Housing and Community Studies (CHCS) brings together faculty from multiple disciplines and backgrounds to study these problems as well as to provide a point of contact for community partners. CHCS will enhance UNCG’s capacity to serve the state on a regional basis with practical education and training of UNCG students, and program and community-based evaluation research in housing and long-term regional sustainable planning.
Center for Industry Research and Engagement
The Center for Industry Research and Engagement performs high-quality applied research in economic policy and business practice, drawing on the expertise of the faculty of the Bryan School of Business and Economics. Our goal is to use sound and objective research to serve the Triad community and to assist in the economic development of our region.
Center for New North Carolinians – Research Fellows
The Center for New North Carolinians (CNNC) Center Research Fellows are academics and community based professionals who undertake special community based research projects to study, analyze, and disseminate social science research related to the integration process of immigrants in the state of North Carolina. CNNC Center Research Fellows seek equitable representation of immigrant colleagues and community representatives in community based research to assure full presentation of community interests and goals.
Center for Translational Biomedical Research
Researchers at the UNCG Center for Translational Biomedical Research are conducting research to identify and evaluate bioactive ingredients from food, plants and traditional Chinese medicines for the prevention and treatment of metabolic disorders such as diabetes, obesity, and cancer. This research entails chemical and metabolic profiling of bioactive components from a whole biological systems (metabolomics) approach. Other research examines cellular and molecular mechanisms of bioactive components, in order to address fundamental research questions that enhance our basic understanding of the contribution of bioactive components to human health and wellness, healthy aging, and disease prevention.
Center for Women’s Health and Wellness
The Center for Women’s Health and Wellness (CWHW) works to advance the health and wellness of all women and girls through collaborative research, educational programs, and community engagement. Specifically, the CWHW conducts research related to women’s multiple roles and work-family-life balance, breastfeeding, women’s reproductive health, reducing the research-practice gap in domestic violence, motherhood and coaching, and bystander intentions of student-athletes in sexually violent situations.
Center for Youth, Family, and Community Partnerships
The Center for Youth, Family, and Community Partnerships (CYFCP) addresses health and social issues affecting children, youth, and families in the community. The CYFCP advances research and outreach for the university, builds social capital, and enhances community health and well-being, and collaborates with university partners, community-based agencies, state and local organizations, and individuals to put evidence-based solutions into practice and to evaluate practice-based evidence.
Institute to Promote Athlete Health and Wellness
The Institute to Promote Athlete Health & Wellness is at the forefront of excellence in health promotion for athletes of all ages and levels of competition. The Institute’s vision is to improved the health and wellness of athletes through the translation of prevention research to effective policies and practices. Areas of focus include, but not limited to, (a) alcohol and other drug education/prevention, (b) the prevention of interpersonal violence, (c) the promotion of effective stress management, decision making, and communication skills and (d) the promotion of healthy relationships and emotional health. Their mission is to work collaboratively with a variety of organizations to provide educational resources and support through evidence-based programming, training, research, and evaluation to effectively promote athlete health and wellness thereby fostering lifelong athlete development. The Institute accomplishes this by providing valuable technical and research/evaluation support for organizations that serve athletes.
Medicinal Chemistry Collaborative
A major focus of the Medicinal Chemistry Collaborative is “natural products,” the molecules synthesized by plants, fungi, and other natural organisms. To find important examples of how natural products have contributed to medicine, one need look no further than penicillin, a molecule produced by a fungus, that sparked the antibiotic revolution. The applications of our natural products research include discovering new lead compounds for drug development, evaluating the safety and efficacy of traditional herbal medicines, and understanding the role that chemical compounds play in communication between living systems.
North Carolina Entrepreneurship Center
The North Carolina Entrepreneurship Center (NCEC) is a campus-wide, cross-disciplinary center that has community-engagement, building student and community connections as it primary focus. NCEC’s mission is to help entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses and to serve as a catalysis for the creation of sustainable and globally competitive enterprises in the Piedmont Triad, North Carolina, and beyond. NCEC offers a range of outreach, instructional, and research opportunities including seminars, workshops, and conferences featuring entrepreneurship education for students and faculty. It also offers extra-curricular entrepreneurial opportunities including public forums to educate the campus and community about entrepreneurship; lectures by visiting experts to various types of entrepreneurship; and business idea competitions and programs that create diverse opportunities for growing the mindset.
North Carolina Sales Institute
The North Carolina Sales Institute (NCSI) provides word-class sales education and research. The NCSI is a coordinating mechanism that works actively to integrate the elements of credit- and non-credit teaching, as well as research focused on sales. The target audiences are undergraduate and graduate students, current or aspiring sales professionals, and organizations in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, in the Piedmont Triad Regions, the state of North Carolina, and beyond. For more information, contact Dr. Jim Boles, NCSI Director and Department Head, Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality and Tourism at jsboles@uncg.edu or (336) 334-4413
Office of Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Services
The Office of Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Services (OAERS) is a division of the Department of Educational Research Methodology (ERM) at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. OAERS provides consulting services to the greater community in the areas of assessment and measurement, program evaluation, research design, and data analysis.
The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) is a catalyst for advancing the research mission of UNCG. ORI helps to enhance partnerships and interdisciplinary compliance collaborations with government, industry and other research enterprises of higher learning. ORI develops and ensures that compliance policies and educational programs promote both a culture of innovation and a culture of compliance on the UNCG campus. ORI also oversees the Institutional Review Board, which ensures that human subjects involved in research are adequately protected.
Office of Research & Engagement
The Office of Research and Engagement is the home of the Institute for Community and Economic Engagement, and promotes excellence and continued growth in research, creative activity, community engagement, and economic development at the University while ensuring adequate research infrastructure to support excellence in research and scholarship across all disciplines.
The SERVE Center, at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is a university-based research, development, dissemination, evaluation, and technical assistance center. SERVE provides research-based information on educational initiatives happening nationally and regionally, including e-resources for educators, evaluation services, and technical assistance.
