The school opened phase one of its new research lab in September 2015. The research lab serves as a hub for inquiry and intellectual discourse within the school; to promote a climate and culture that values research with impact; and to ensure that scholarship is a key component of the school's campus, state, national and international identity.

It serves this mission by supporting, cultivating and promoting the research tradition of the school by providing resources for research; facilitating research opportunities and collaboration; creating forums for the presentation and discussion of research; and promoting the research of faculty and graduate students at the university, in the state and at national and international levels.

• Break-out spaces for faculty and graduate student research collaboration
• A focus group room with adjacent one-way mirror observational space
• DVR recording capability
• Eye-tracking research suite with one-way mirror observational space
• Interview rooms
• Research equipment such as portable eye-trackers and EEG neuro headsets

The Park Library supports the School of Media and Journalism‘s educational, research and professional mission by teaching students, selecting appropriate materials for courses taught in the school and providing space for quiet study. Or as librarian Stephanie Willen Brown says, we offer “space, stuff and support” for all your research needs.

• Space for up to 70 people 
• Comfortable chairs
• Large work tables
• 11 Mac desktop computers (with Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft software)
• Bloomberg terminal
• Thunderbolt displays to charge your Mac
• 10,000 books
• Theses of undergraduate and M.A. students
• Thousands of online journals
• Help finding online material for research projects
• Prepare subject guides with recommended databases and websites

UNC Blue Sky Innovations, formerly Reese Innovation Lab, is an experimental media and research project, was launched in 2010. The lab focuses on developing and testing new ideas for the media industry in the form of a “pre-startup.” Teams of students research ideas for media products, create prototypes, interview and survey potential customers and develop business strategies. They document their recommendations on whether they believe a product will work and then present their ideas to the public. The most promising ideas are then launched into the marketplace. The lab space is open to lab members at all times and includes: 

• 15 iMac workstations
• Three Macintosh Pro video editing stations
• Four Mac mini-presentation devices
• A collaborative meeting area
• Multiple large-screen displays
• Seven Apple Thunderbolt displays for docking personal laptops