How collaboration is changing North Carolina, one project at a time

Governments, universities and philanthropies often target the same problems. But when they don’t work together to solve them, money, energy and momentum can be wasted.

Beginning with the creation of one position five years ago, North Carolina has built a widely praised Office of Strategic Partnerships, or OSP, designed to whittle away the communication and logistical problems that often interfere with government, academic and philanthropic relationships.

“My gut feeling is this could be a great national model,” says Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, dean of the School of Education at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Tonya Smith-Jackson, provost at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the largest historically Black university in the U.S., echoes that sentiment. With 25-plus years behind her in academia, she says, “The model that OSP is using for university-government collaboration is the best I've seen.”

The Beginning

The origin of OSP was a desire to make greater use of both evidence and data in North Carolina’s management and policy initiatives. It was not started to pursue any single state initiative, but to establish improved communication and working relationships between the government, the state’s multiple universities and philanthropies.

As director of the new office, Gov. Roy Cooper selected Jenni Owen, who had served as his policy advisor during the first two years of his administration. Prior to joining North Carolina government, Owen had spent 13 years as director of policy engagement at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.  With vast prior experience in both academia and the public sector, she knew that the relationship between the two was often flawed.

A big problem was a failure to communicate. “People in academia who say they want to have an impact on policy really mean it. And people in government who say they want evidence and data to inform their decisions also really mean it. But the way they traditionally each go about doing that is often clunky,” she says.

Owen began creating the new partnership structure slowly, focusing on individual conversations with people she knew in both sectors.  

Her first meetings were in coffee shops with a handful of people, eventually snowballing as others joined the conversation in larger meeting places.

“She asked us what could be done to enrich partnerships and make sure they’re mutually beneficial,” says Smith-Jackson. “It was the words ‘mutually beneficial’ that really got us.”

Today, OSP has grown from a staff of one to six. It is widely known across North Carolina for its growing network of state-academic-foundation contacts and the simple but elegant way that agencies can present multiple research projects that academics from North Carolina (and sometimes nationally) can easily explore.

The result is a “huge capacity for partnerships that really didn’t exist before the office was formally stood up,” says Jennifer Mundt, co-chair of the office’s advisory group and assistant secretary in the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

The Building Blocks

Observers say one reason for the office’s good reputation is that its cost-effective. OSP depends largely on state and local researchers rather than external expert consultants from around the country. “What better way to do this than to build sustainable relationships between government and state institutions of higher education that are funded by government to do this work?” asks UNC’s Abd-El-Khalick.

The elements that are part of OSP are relatively simple. One tool in its approach is a project portal, where many vetted research needs are posted from state agencies. To prepare the initial research request, OSP and agencies work together to complete a one-page template that spells out desired research results, deliverables, data, timing and scope. The template helps to “frontload the conversation,” says Owen.

OSP requires that only research projects that can result in change go up on the portal. If the knowledge that comes from research is simply for knowledge’s sake, the project won’t be posted. “There are certain things agencies would like to know, but even if they had the answers, they couldn’t change anything,” says Owen.

At the end of March, the portal showed six open research opportunities, 13 projects in process, and 23 that have been finished.

 A list of projects shows some of the planned uses of research made possible through OSP’s process. For example:

• The Department of Revenue and OSP partnered on a project that helped the department test different designs for communicating with taxpayers who fail to pay taxes on time.


• The Secretary of State is pursuing research to understand factors that put new businesses at risk, along with ways to identify interventions that may help them survive.


• The Department of Commerce received research assistance in developing a digital map of “data literacy pathways” provided through North Carolina high school and higher education programs, with an eye to strengthening the state’s data economy.


• The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and two state universities are partnering on a research project to improve compliance in boating regulations and, in turn, public safety.

After research projects are first posted, and researchers have responded, the next step is a research partnership meeting, which interested researchers attend online or can access through a recorded version.

Another approach OSP has developed is a monthly public online “connect” meeting. At each session, a topic is chosen that is “relevant to partnerships among state government, research institutions … philanthropy and others.” Summaries and recordings of 42 of these meetings are available on the office’s website.

Finally, OSP brings in philanthropic institutions, which add expertise and knowledge to the partnership, as well as potential funding. One of the key positions at OSP serves as a liaison with philanthropies, which are often working on similar goals as government. But “they don’t know how to connect with each other and work effectively,” says Rhett Mabry, president of The Duke Endowment, which has partially funded the position. “That’s not putting blame on government. Our inability to collaborate as much as we should, lies in both camps.”

The liaison helps external funders know what’s going on, how to get the information they need and how to navigate the complex multifaceted world of state government to locate projects that intersect with their own. “Basically, you have someone whose job is to have conversations with us,” Mabry says.

Reaching Out

OSP has used online communications extensively to be thoroughly inclusive and bring in partners from across the state, including both public and private institutions, the state’s 10 historically Black colleges and universities, and small private, rural and community colleges.

Broadening the outreach is good for North Carolina, says Smith-Jackson, “because the state has access to more diverse researchers and students who bring diverse lenses to the table. That’s what is going to push our state in terms of innovation and progress.”

Another benefit to the broader outreach is the impact on students themselves. Research opportunities help to introduce students to the potential of state government to make program improvements, innovate and find new directions. “If we can get students into more of these university-government projects through OSP, we’re recruiting for our state and we’re keeping our students here in the state. That’s really powerful,” Smith-Jackson says.

Additionally, this open approach has helped to break the mold “of geographic privilege” she says, noting that her university has been chosen as a partner in several research projects that originated through the OSP portal.

The Future?

Among OSP’s philanthropy and research partners is the North Carolina Collaboratory, “established by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2016 to utilize and disseminate the research expertise across the University of North Carolina System for practical use by state and local government.”

According to Executive Director Jeff Warren, “The NC Collaboratory has enjoyed a productive, multi-year partnership with OSP.” OSP’s ability to bridge executive branch agencies with academic research partners has served as a “model of engagement,” including for a faculty fellows’ program that the Collaboratory funded starting in 2022 in partnership with Secretary Elizabeth Biser from the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Despite its growing reputation, long-term funding from the state for OSP is not assured. To date, it has been largely funded by the executive branch, with support also coming from foundations. But Cooper’s second and final term is nearing its end.

“Right now, we’re trying to figure out how to sustain this work into the new administration,” Owen says. “The intent is to embed this, integrate it and make it just part of what government does.”

Whatever the coming months and years bring, the seeds of very workable government-academic-philanthropy partnerships have been planted. OSP is focused on state government but has already generated interest from the federal government. The Office of Management and Budget’s Evidence Team is using OSP materials and processes as a basis for some research partnership efforts, and the Environmental Protection Agency has asked OSP to facilitate two research partnerships.

In addition, government, research, and philanthropy representatives in other states, including Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah have sought information about OSP’s structure and processes.

“I absolutely think that this is a plug and play model with just a little legwork to get it off the ground,” says Mundt, co-chair of the OSP advisory group. “In a perfect world, you would have an OSP in every state, county and city to help decision-makers reach the best decisions with the evidence they need for support.”