Students building
a better community.
The Innovation Lab is a nonpartisan, student-led organization that asseses the gap between campus and community, turning research into real-world change for Orange County.
This is not academic theory. Our teams produce policy briefs, community programs, and stakeholder strategies that go directly into the hands of local leaders and government officials.
Question.Think.Plan.Act.
What the Lab Does
Research that goes somewhere.
Through project-based teams, students gain hands-on experience in policy research, data analysis, and community engagement. Each team partners with local stakeholders to study a pressing community issue, refine findings through collaboration and mentorship, and deliver professional-grade outputs that drive real decisions.
Our goal is to empower students to work on the issues they care about most: housing, education, public health, the environment, and beyond. All while creating tangible programs for Orange County.
We believe good policy starts with good ideas, and that change begins when those ideas are informed by research, collaboration, and local voices.
🏠 Social Services Assessment
Mapping every support resource in Orange County; nonprofits, agencies, UNC Health, police, EMS, and more, to build a comprehensive action plan for connecting people in need with the right support, fast.
📋 Policy Initiatives
Researching best practices from other cities and building the Volunteer Portal that will connect Orange County residents who want to serve with nonprofits that need them most.
📣 Community Outreach & Communications
Attending town council and school board meetings to track community opportunities and creating content for the Grata Gazette to keep the community up to date on our work.
The research engine behind everything we do.
The Innovation Lab is the research and development engine powering Grata Connects. We made a deliberate choice not to staff with seasoned professionals because our community needs new voices, fresh perspectives, and bold ideas. The students in our Innovation Lab bring all of that and more. They are passionate, creative, exceptionally talented, and determined to shape the future world they will live and work in.. The work happening in the Lab defines how we connect people in need, how we partner with agencies, and how we grow as an organization.
When you support Grata Connects, you are funding this work. You are investing in students who are becoming the next generation of community leaders and in the programs they are building right now, for our entire community.