Institute for Emerging Issues

The Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) at NC State University is concerned with the future vitality of North Carolina’s communities. IEI believes our state’s future success will be determined in large part by our ability to innovate along the convergence of four key areas: Education, Health, Economy, and Environments (Natural and Built). IEI deliberately and directly connects interested citizens and stakeholders from across North Carolina in business, government, education, and the non-profit sector. As a public policy "think-and-do" tank, our goal is to bring focus to the state’s complex public challenges, to provide an accessible conduit for citizens and leaders to engage constructively with those issues, and to support the implementation of responsive strategies.

OUR HISTORY

In 1985, Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. and NC State Chancellor Bruce Poulton established the Emerging Issues Forum to focus attention on critical questions facing North Carolina. The University of North Carolina Board of Governors approved the creation of the Institute for Emerging Issues at NC State University in 2002 to continue the work started at the Forum. Today, IEI brings people together around a living, interconnected, long-term vision for the future of our state, and inspires and motivates citizens to create positive change.

OUR ENGAGEMENT

IEI now extends beyond its anchor event, the Emerging Issues Forum, to employ a unique public policy process that convenes leaders from business, nonprofit organizations, government and higher education to discuss and develop action steps to combat the challenges to North Carolina's future prosperity. Each year, IEI focuses on an emerging issue that demands the entire state’s attention. IEI brings thousands of people together to discover the opportunities within these issues, identify innovative solutions, and support leaders and communities seeking to implement those solutions. The Emerging Issues Forum, held each February, remains our signature event, but our year-round program of work developed through the Forum includes community forums, focus groups, business committees, and working groups.

Previous forum topics have focused on reforming higher education and modernizing North Carolina's system of tax and finance. In 2013 IEI's Emerging Issues Forum will discuss the future of manufacturing in the Tar Heel State with its @Manufacturing Works Forum topic. Programs of work are developed from five general areas of focus: education, healthcare, economic development, energy and the environment, and tax and finance.

Through focus groups and community forums, IEI goes deep into our communities across the state to better understand important local contexts. With other engagement events, such as leadership retreats and working groups, IEI seeks to build consensus among stakeholders and to establish a supportive infrastructure to enable public participation and collaborative problem solving across North Carolina. Our work also targets specific audiences within the state. The Discovery Forum for Emerging Leaders, for example, brings young people into the conversation and develops our next generation’s leadership capacity.

OUR FUTURE

In 2013, IEI will open the Emerging Issues Commons, a groundbreaking online and in-person civic engagement platform that will exponentially advance our ability to help communities solve challenges. The Commons will inspire North Carolinians through ideas, information, and stories of people and communities grappling with change. Visitors will be motivated to learn more about challenges facing their own communities, what is being done to address these issues, and how they can help. The Emerging Issues Commons will allow people in all 100 counties to be a part of the long-term development of our state and empower citizens to work together to solve the challenges we all face.

To make informed decisions for the good of their communities, citizens across the United States need access to credible and interpretable data, an understanding of the challenges they face, an opportunity to voice the solutions they envision, and the space to collaborate and connect with others in ways never before possible to put their good ideas into action. IEI and the Emerging Issues Commons are doing this for North Carolina today.

External links

Institute for Emerging Issues
NC State University