Download the full Tour report.
The Research Triangle Park started out as a bold idea, a vision from North Carolina’s leaders for the future of a struggling state.
Over the last fifty years, the businesses, universities, and civic leaders who believed in RTP overcame daunting obstacles to make North Carolina a global leader. Today, RTP is home to more than 170 companies that employ more than 40,000 people. Its success helps improve access to education and jobs, creating opportunities for people across North Carolina to improve their quality of life. But our state faces new challenges. Rising international competition and a changing economy threaten to once again leave North Carolina businesses and workers behind. Against this backdrop, RTP needs to ReConnect with North Carolina
so we can ReImagine our future — and ultimately ReDevelop the Park to lead North Carolina in the innovation economy.
The Pathways to Opportunity tour was RTP’s first step
toward ReConnecting with the state it serves.
On the tour, we found citizens and leaders collaborating on innovative programs to ReDevelop their communities. We also found a state eager to partner with RTP to ReImagine our future. In Asheville, for example, leaders cautioned us: “Don’t think small.”
“RTP is our connection to the world. You are better positioned than anyone else to help us leverage the excitement in our region to become successful with businesses, leaders, and media from around the world.”
This year, we will act on the ideas we heard and the expectations North Carolina has for RTP.
Together with partners in business, academia, and government, we will ReDevelop the Park to be an innovation economy leader — and the partner North Carolina needs:
RTP WIll Be A CONVENER
We will bring leaders together from around the state in economic development meetings that fosters collaboration and innovation.
RTP WIll Be A CONNECTOR
We will create an open, online network that shares information and invites conversation, connecting our community to work together for North Carolina.
RTP WIll Be A CATAlYST
The Park will foster a community for innovation that shares new ideas and inspires its partners — helping all of North Carolina build pathways to opportunity.
On our trip across the state, RTP ReConnected with passionate, generous people working hard for their future and the futures of their communities. We’re grateful to all the people who made the tour happen, and to our hosts who inspired us with their innovative and successful work to ReImagine their futures.
We look forward to continuing to ReConnect with North Carolina in the coming months as we work together to ReDevelop RTP. We hope all of North Carolina will join us in responding to the call we heard in Asheville and every community we visited: “Go big. Think big. Do big things. We need that kind of spirit now.”
Read more about the Pathways to Opportunity tour.
W/ the recent passing of Bill Friday (I’m looking at his signature on my UNC diploma), is there any plan for a TV show like he had that discusses areas (other than Raleigh), people, and issues of particular interest to our State. I am thinking especially the green initiatives, like wind generation of electricity at the Coast. I am thinking that so much of the technology generated by minds at RTP from local and scientists around the world and housed there is applied in more remote areas. By having a vehicle that showcases these “places of interest”, the beauty of our State may be extended to its utility.
I am an elected official -Siler City Town Commissioner . After reading your article in the N&O, I am hopping that I have come accross a forum that can be of great benefit in many ways. Siler City has been decimated by the exodus of jobs. Our economic base has centered around the furniture , textial and poultry industries. Most recently, Townsend, a poultry processor, closed its facility and left us with an additional loss of some 500 jobs.
Our town demographics are posted on our web site . Not only are we in the geographical center of the state, we have many desirable amenities. We have a new hospital. We are the proud home of the NC Art Incubator. We have a willing and dedicated workforce to draw on. We have an abundance of good quality water, the result of an additional resevoir to accommodate the poultry industry. The low cost of housing, bucholic rural setting, respect of our historic past and most of all, our focus on the future.
We have parks, greenway trails, ball fields, and are presently building the first tournament quality soccer field in all of Chatham Co. Our high school has won state championships in boys and girls
sports.
We would like to be presented to your staff and subscribers as a desirable location to plant a buisness . We would welcome a visit and look forward to hearing from you and your subscribers.