GAMING

The Indiana University Innovation Center, a new $10 million home to university researchers and private start-up companies, will be formally dedicated Monday, Nov. 9, by IU President Michael A. McRobbie. The facility is a key component of the president's Innovate Indiana initiative.

The 40,000 square-foot center, located at 2719 E. 10th St., already houses the IU Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI) and will soon provide offices for the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the IU Kelley School of Business, the IU School of Informatics, and IU Research & Technology Corp. (IURTC) administrators and staff.

In addition to an earlier $30 million dollar gift from Lilly Endowment Inc., PTI recently received an additional $15 million award from the endowment. PTI is home to three research centers: the Digital Science Center, the Data to Insight Center, and the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research.

Considered an anchor for the new technology corridor developing along the 10th Street site and planned to expand north along the 45/46 Bypass, the center is expected to complement a range of life science and technology-based enterprises locating in the area, including the new IU Data Center and the planned Cyber Infrastructure Building that will house many of the University Information Technology Services staff.

The second floor of the Innovation Center will offer specially equipped wet-lab space ideally suited for bio and life science start-up companies.

"With this ceremony we unveil and dedicate a state-of-the-art facility focused squarely on incubating and translating the most creative research inventions and innovations from IU's faculty, staff and students into new companies and products, and hence contribute to the economic development of Bloomington and Indiana," McRobbie said. "We also expect that this facility will provide a hub for partnerships between the IT and life sciences industry and IU researchers, as well as an outstanding environment for IU students to learn and participate first hand in entrepreneurship."

IU Vice President for Engagement Bill Stephan, whose role it is to coordinate university resources that foster economic growth in the state, praised the Innovation Center as an investment designed to stimulate academic research, economic development and collaborative opportunity.

"This corner of 10th Street and the Bloomington bypass is where the state's largest research institution is going to set the example for how business and academia succeed at improving the lives of citizens in indiana, the country and the world," he said. "Nothing generates more business in Indiana than brainpower and the Innovation Center is where we hope that brainpower, in the form of researchers, students and entrepreneurs, will come together."

Stephan and IURTC president Tony Armstrong agreed that research should be considered Indiana's newest, best growth industry, and that without facilities like the Innovation Center the state could lose a competitive edge in the global economy and opportunities at attracting the top talent necessary to maintain that competitive nature.

"We believe this is where the new jobs, the new companies, will be nourished before going on to grow," Armstrong said. "And with additional assets offered by the IU Data Center, the planned Cyberinfrastructure Building and continued planned growth of a technology park north along the bypass, the opportunities seem limitless."

The public dedication ceremony will be held at 10 a.m., Monday, Nov. 9, in the University Gymnasium located directly north of the new center, with a reception and tour to follow. For more information please call 317-231-2114 or 812-856-1896.