Asheville’s trusted science and technology industries are world-renowned. Our businesses regularly work together to seek new ideas, solve global problems, and launch state-of-the-art tools and programs. Asheville’s access to a diverse and highly-skilled talent pool, broadband infrastructure, colleges and business-friendly technical schools has made our region a top choice for companies involved in climate science, cloud computing, data management and more.
Science & Technology
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Paving the Way For Economic Growth Through Innovation & Collaboration
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Climate Science
Asheville is home to a wealth of climate scientists, data scientists and technical solutions providers who are researching and developing the next generation of tools to increase our planet’s resilience to the effects of extreme weather and climate change.
With the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Centers for Environment Information (NCEI) headquartered in the heart of downtown, collaboration to unlock the value from massive amounts of data collected on this all-important subject is helping support every sector of Asheville’s economy. Extending far beyond Western North Carolina, the NCEI and NOAA work together to help every facet of our nation’s economy, informing crucial choices that governments, businesses and individuals make every day that ultimately have an impact on the future of the planet.
One by-product of the presence of these leading climate science organizations in Asheville is the formation of climate-related organizations with very specific focus areas. For example, the National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC) at UNC Asheville is producing software focused on flood-hazard maps and other tools, helping people understand and reach decisions in our changing environmental world.
With our public, private, non-profit and academic sectors all working together to innovate, research and develop the next generations of climate technologies and scientists, Asheville is quickly becoming the world’s hub for climate science.
Digital Media & IT
We’re no Silicon Valley, and we’re perfectly fine with that. Asheville organically attracts digital and IT companies, and talent who come for the short commutes, low cost-of-living and active quality of life. Our community has no limits on innovation and we share our discoveries worldwide.
From companies specializing in cloud computing to data management, our region is home to highly-skilled workers, businesses and top-quality infrastructure.
Just an hour away from us in Caldwell County, NC, Google invested $600 million to build a fully operational data center, and two hours away in Tennessee is Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest science and energy laboratory.
Asheville communicates with the world through ERC Broadband, which delivers high-speed internet access across a region of challenging mountain topography, providing local and long-haul broadband service to educational and research institutions in our region.
Because of Asheville’s large tech and science presence, the local community has a strong networking presence for IT professionals, including Venture Asheville and Meet The Geeks, a volunteer-based organization that hosts frequent social and networking meetups to promote relationships and cross-pollination of ideas that will benefit our city, state, country and world.
Life Science & Biotechnology in Asheville
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