Mobile Edition
Print
Get the Mag
Weekly UpdatesPUBLIC UNIVERSITIES are inextricably linked to Indiana's ability to compete for the best jobs in growth industries. Their impact ranges from breakthrough research leading to high-tech start-ups to on-site worker training programs. "But more broadly, there are 300,000 students in college every year that are going to be entering the workforce," says Stan Jones, commissioner of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.
In its "Reaching Higher: Strategic Directions for Indiana" report the commission established several economic development recommendations and is pushing for funding in the 2009-2011 budget--a tough sell in this economy. Incentive funding for IU, Purdue and IUPUI, begun in 2002, would continue if they are successful in capturing additional federal research grants. "In the governor's recommendation it's included, albeit at a lower level," says Jones. It also supports funding for IU and Purdue's year-old collaboration in the life sciences called the Indiana Innovation Alliance--the toughest sell. Then there's $500,000 for Ivy Tech and Vincennes University to deliver more on-site training programs for businesses. "Those are three areas where I think we are making some modest progress; modest because of the state's fiscal outlook," says Jones. Absent from the radar screen are earlier recommendations from both the commission and the governor to provide two years of free college tuition.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Indiana Innovation Alliance. Through the Indiana Innovation Alliance, IU and Purdue will leverage their core strengths, says Bill Stephan, IU'S vice president for engagement. These strengths include infrastructure, equipment, faculty and students, to support or complement the work that's going on in the private sector. Indiana has reached a level of distinction nationally in life sciences, he says, but without additional funding "there's the risk that we'll lose momentum."
Together, Purdue and IU have requested $35 million for each year of the next biennium, $70 million total. The request built on a $20 million appropriation for life sciences in the Indiana Economic Development Corporation's budget that was to become available in July 2008, says Stephan, but that has not been released due to the state's economic woes.
"We've had a division of labor over the decades traced back to our originating charters that puts engineering at Purdue, medicine at IU, agriculture at Purdue, and so on," says Vic Lechtenberg, Purdue's vice provost for engagement. But to be really competitive for major research grants today, bridges between the schools have to be built, he says. Part of the new budget request would be used as co-investment--or matching funds, for federal grants, an increasing federal requirement, he says. In addition, the alliance will focus on filling the looming shortage of doctors, highly trained pharmacists, and biomedical engineers.
IUPUI has a key role to play in the Indiana Innovation Alliance, largely due to the IU School of Medicine on its campus. Much of IUPUI's economic development activity fits naturally into three of Indiana's key industry clusters, says Chancellor Charles R. Bantz: health and life sciences, advanced manufacturing and information technology. The institution trains more than half the state's physicians, he says, 90 percent of its dentists, half of its attorneys and has the only Ph.D. in nursing program. "People are always surprised that we are one of the top 10 campuses in America for graduates in technology--engineering technology."
On the research side, IUPUI generated more outside research funds than any other state institution last year, says Bantz, $303 million, almost 90 percent focused on health and life sciences. The state's financial incentives for bringing in new research dollars are critical, he stresses, to improve its infrastructure, meet compliance requirements and recruit talented researchers. "One of the first years we had the money we used it to recruit a chair in biochemistry," he says. "He came here with grants in hand and had patents and started a company. It was a great example of how research can lead directly to economic development."
Technology transfer. "We are working very hard to better commercialize intellectual property that comes out of our research programs," says Purdue's Lechtenberg, "particularly in bioscience, IT, engineering sciences and manufacturing." Discovery Park in West Lafayette has 11 research centers working in an interdisciplinary approach. When university research is ripe for commercialization, that can happen through Purdue Research Foundation's flagship Purdue Research Park and at its satellite parks in Merrillville, New Albany and the Indianapolis International Airport location at AmeriPlex dedicated last month. "All of those initiatives are really aimed at trying to nurture and grow new businesses, new startups, and harness Purdue technology in creative ways either through new businesses or licensing to existing businesses."
With its Indianapolis Emerging Technology Center at capacity, IU will open a 40,000-square-foot Bloomington incubator this summer. The IU Research and Technology Corp. operates both centers. The Bloomington facility will provide much-needed wet and dry lab space for technology and life-sciences companies, says Stephan, and operational funding will come from revenues generated from licensed technologies or the equity stake that IU takes in successful start-up companies.
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne created an engagement office to work with its counterparts at IU and Purdue and bring the intellectual power and property of the three universities to Northeast Indiana, says Chancellor Michael Wartell. "Since its inception a couple of years ago there have been in excess of 300 businesses that have been in contact." Engagement director Sean Ryan will typically bring in five or six technologies from IU and Purdue at a time, says Wartell, "and there will be 30 entrepreneurs there to take a look at them and decide whether they're interested in them as an investment." In addition, the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center is located on campus, and the university works collaboratively with its high-tech incubator, providing interns and faculty support.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
"The opening of our Office of Technology Transfer in 2007 demonstrates our commitment to transferring intellectual property to the private sector," says Ball State University President Jo Ann Gora. "We also provide technical assistance to communities across Indiana through our Building Better Communities program."
BSU announced plans in December to invest more than $17 million over five years in its Emerging Media Initiative. "Students will have access to innovative and entrepreneurial opportunities in emerging media across the curriculum," says Gora. "Our growing emphasis on new ideas, technology transfer and commercialization will help faculty bring their emerging media ideas to market."
Responding to regional needs, The University of Southern Indiana ensures its programs are meeting the workforce needs of the region by conducting a needs survey of CEOs and political leadership, says President H. Ray Hoops. In the last round, 13 of 14 recommendations were implemented. "The most dramatic was the need for an engineering degree," he says. The program started with 100 enrolled about six years ago, now it's at 400. "There is no brain drain here," he adds. "In fact it's a reverse brain drain. Most of our students stay here and find jobs locally."
One of the more unusual programs USI added as a result of CEO interest was special education, says Hoops. While not readily seen as an economic development tool, it turned out that in the age range of many hires, 25 to 45, one in seven families had a special needs child requiring services in the community. An advanced manufacturing program will be added next year.
Daniel J. Bradley, who was president of Fairmont State University in West Virginia and became president of Indiana State University less than eight months ago, has been busy building bridges. "Progress can be attained much more swiftly and effectively through the collaboration of governmental entities, universities and the private sector," he says. "In Terre Haute, this approach has led to a transformation of our downtown and the development of an active incubator that now serves five growing companies." Midwest Compliance Laboratories, a joint venture of five former Pfizer employees is the latest start-up in the Terre Haute Innovation Alliance incubator, and will provide contract compliance testing for the pharmaceutical and food industries. Located on the ISU campus, the incubator is a partnership between the university, the city of Terre Haute and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
ISU is also involved in partnerships to address the critical shortage of healthcare professionals in rural Indiana, further the development and growth of healthcare related companies, and tackle neighborhood blight. "The university is currently planning for a new or renovated facility that will allow the College of Nursing, Health, and Human Services to better prepare its graduates to meet changing healthcare needs," says Bradley
Two-year programs tare off. With the General Assembly's recharter of Ivy Tech in 2005, the renamed Ivy Tech Community College formalized its role of providing for-credit training that led not only to a two-year associate's degree but would transfer to Indiana's four-year schools, serving as a feeder system. With that change Ivy Tech became the state's largest institution of higher education with more than 120,000 enrolled annually in credit programs, says President Tom Snyder. Spring 2009 enrollment was up 14 percent, he says, well beyond the 10 percent expected. An additional 25,000 Hoosiers participate in non-credit workforce development and certificate programs.
FEED