Supporting Entrepreneurship at Purdue
IIB's Gerry Dick chats with Wade Lange
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe chief entrepreneurial officer at Purdue Research Foundation gives Purdue University Mitch Daniels high praise for spurring the entrepreneurial spirit at the state’s land grant institution. During the newest Ag+Bio+Science podcast presented by AgriNovus Indiana, Wade Lange said Daniels made innovation and supporting the commercialization of intellectual property a top priority.
Daniels became Purdue’s 12th president in January 2013.
“The speed of that change is almost breathtaking. In the period of time, probably 10 years before Mitch came on board, we were on average eight or nine startups coming out of Purdue. Within a year, we did 25. And we’ve averaged 22 and a half companies,” said Lange to Inside INdiana Business and podcast host Gerry Dick.
The foundation helps patent and commercialize Purdue technologies, but it also puts a lot of emphasis on encouraging “innovation, invention, investment” of its faculty, staff and students.
“Really our job is to make Indiana and the world a better place. And this is one of the ways we do that,” said Lange. “An important part of that here is how we define the impact of what we do throughout the university. We talk a lot about impact. And ultimately, it’s the discoveries that are made, that enter the marketplace, that can change the world. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Lange says one thing limiting entrepreneurship in Indiana is the limited access to capital. He says there are not enough early-stage investment funds made available in the Midwest.
Another challenge is the acceptance and adoption of new technologies, whether it’s in manufacturing or agriculture.
“And the impact of that then is our profitability is lower in manufacturing that is another area than other parts of the country. My supposition is that it’s not different in agriculture. So, the more we can get our customers, our farmers, our manufacturers to accept new technologies, adopt them, bring them into their processes, we’re going to be a whole lot better off,” said Lange
Each week, host Gerry Dick conducts conversations with leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs in Indiana’s agbioscience sector, discussing the confluence of food, agriculture, science and technology.
The full podcast will be available Monday morning. Click here for more information on how you can listen.