NCInnovation (NCI) hosted its statewide portfolio showcase during an event in Wrightsville Beach on Wednesday night, highlighting 41 NCI-supported projects from 13 universities.

NCI, a nonprofit supported by a $500 million state-funded endowment, supports and accelerates university-led innovation and has invested $43.9 million statewide in 55 university-rooted research projects, including four at UNCW. 

The organization announced its latest round of investment during the event held at Lumina, a Holiday Inn Resort on Wrightsville Beach. NCI committed $6.8 million to eight university technology projects from East Carolina University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina A&T State University, NC State University, UNC Asheville, UNC Chapel Hill and UNC Charlotte. 

Founded in 2020, NCI gained statewide prominence after securing a $500 million endowment from the North Carolina General Assembly. The organization has several hubs or innovation centers across the state, including one at UNCW. 

At the portfolio showcase and investor reception, NCI leaders highlighted the organization’s role in helping university research move toward commercial use.

“We are three years into our inaugural funding, and have moved obviously from pieces of paper and ideas and vision and leadership to this room,” Michelle Bolas, president and CEO of NCI, said on Wednesday. 

She added, “We invest in great research, and then we invest a little bit more to make sure that great research, (which) is already solving a problem in North Carolina, is pointed toward a market opening to become an economically viable entity.”

The portfolio showcase preceded NC IDEA’s annual Ecosystem Summit conference, which takes place on Thursday and Friday at Lumina. 

NCI is a strategic partner for the conference, and in May, the New Hanover Community Endowment announced it would serve as a host partner with a $100,000 commitment.

“I think North Carolina has figured out what the magic is when you cross innovation with entrepreneurship,” said Thom Ruhe, president and CEO of NC IDEA, in his remarks Wednesday. 

NCI has committed nearly $3.6 million in funding to four UNCW portfolio projects since 2024, including a multi-year flu vaccine platform, an AI-driven neck strength assessment platform, a cybersecurity practice and awareness platform for kids and a smart neuro-sensing pillowcase for gathering insights on brain and sleep health. 

Ying Wang, associate professor of chemistry at UNCW, received one of eight grants in NCI’s 2024 pilot grant cycle to develop a multi-year flu vaccine platform. Overall, NCI has funded Wang’s research with over $1 million. 

In 2025, NCI funded a neck strength assessment platform developed by UNCW researchers Lindsey Schroeder, associate professor of athletic training, and Alex McDaniel, associate professor of exercise science. 

The platform, Neck Strength Assessment Tool (NSAT), measures neck strength to help reduce the risk of head and neck injuries and offers data-driven performance assessments to help identify individuals at higher risk for traumatic brain injuries or other head and neck trauma. 

NCI funded two UNCW projects for fiscal year 2026, including Cyber-PARK, or Cybersecurity Practice and Awareness for Rising Kids, which received $335,000 in funding in December 2025. The platform introduces elementary school students to cybersecurity through lessons and games. Ellie Ebrahimi, an associate professor of computer science, leads the project. 

In May, NCI announced its last round of funding for 2026, which included a grant for a fabric-based neural sleep monitoring platform called NeuroWeaveAI, led by Karl Ricanek, a professor of computer science and NSAT’s McDaniel. 

NeuroWeaveAI partners with Wilmington-based sleep tech company Nuream to develop minimally invasive brain-based sleep diagnostic technology. The project received just over $1.3 million from NCI this year.

UNCW also received two NCI Pipeline Development Initiative short-term grants in 2026 for Cybersecurity Resilience AI-driven Test-bed (CRAIT) and TerraSense, an AI-integrated plant nutrient and soil assessment platform.

In her remarks, Bolas emphasized that each featured project requires ongoing support to continue momentum. 

“Every project here has a need to keep moving forward,” Bolas said, “whether it's through a relationship with an investor, an industry partner, another research collaboration, a first customer.”