Position Title: Partnership Research & Intelligence Intern
Company Description: The UNC Office of the Chief Innovation Officer is launching a first-of-its-kind university partnership program designed to connect UNC’s research enterprise, talent pipeline, and innovation ecosystem with corporate and industry leaders nationwide. This summer cohort will serve as the intelligence engine behind that effort.
Company Website: https://innovate.unc.edu/
Internship Job Description:
As a Partnership Research & Intelligence Intern, you will build the foundational data layer that makes meaningful outreach possible: mapping UNC alumni in executive leadership, identifying companies and sectors aligned with UNC’s research strengths, and benchmarking against existing university partnership models. This is rigorous, consequential research work—not busywork—and the output will directly shape how UNC pursues its most strategic external relationships.
Interns will be organized into sub-teams by geography, industry vertical, or organization type (e.g., Fortune 500, PE-backed, public sector, nonprofits). A lead intern will coordinate across sub-teams and serve as the primary point of contact for the supervising team.
AI tools are a core part of how this team works. Interns are expected to use AI actively—for research acceleration, synthesis, drafting, and pattern recognition across large datasets—and to develop judgment about where AI adds leverage and where human verification is non-negotiable.
Responsibilities
•Map UNC alumni holding C-suite, VP, or Board-level positions using LinkedIn, publicly available databases, and UNC alumni records
•Build and maintain a structured contact database with verified outreach information, organizational context, and relationship-to-UNC notes
•Research and analyze existing corporate partnership programs at peer institutions to identify best practices, gaps, and differentiation opportunities
•Segment and prioritize target accounts by geography, industry, org type, and strategic fit with UNC research and talent assets
•Synthesize findings into briefing documents, ranked target lists, and landscape maps for leadership review
•Collaborate with database and operations interns to ensure research outputs are structured and integration-ready
Type and Timing of Internship:
Flexible, during
Summer
Approximate Start and End Dates:
2026-05-18T00:00:00Z to 2026-08-14T00:00:00Z
Internship Location: The Junction 136 East Rosemary Street
Paid or Unpaid: Yes –
Application Instructions:
2026-05-01T00:00:00Z
Please email your resume and a sample project that demonstrates your work to innovate@unc.edu
Primary Contact Email: innovate@unc.edu