Whitten: Lilly Endowment grant ‘game changing’ for new IU facility at 16 Tech
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INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana University this month received its largest grant to support research and development, and that money will go towards a new biosciences initiative.
The $138 million Lilly Endowment grant will establish the IU Launch Accelerator for Biosciences, known as IU LAB, at the 16 Tech Innovation District.
“This is game changing for the city of Indianapolis and the state of Indiana. Our larger vision has been to make Indianapolis the national hub for all things life sciences,” IU President Pamela Whitten said.
Plans are in the works for a new six-story building at 16 Tech that will integrate education, research and development. The space will allow IU faculty, researchers and students to come together with industry partners.
IU LAB will focus first on research and innovation in five critical disease areas relating to diabetes and obesity, neuroscience, rare diseases, cancer and bone engineering and regenerative medicine.
Emily Krueger, 16 Tech President & CEO, says the project creates a clear way for partners and the community at large to interact with the IU School of Medicine, IU Indianapolis and IU Health.
“It can be hard for industry to navigate how to partner with those different groups based on the different geographies and locations and spaces that they occupy. With this facility in 16 Tech, IU is bringing all of those resources together under one roof to make it as easy as possible to translate basic research into the types of products and services that are going to drive patient outcomes,” Krueger said.
The IU LAB will also focus on talent development, bioscience career education and youth programs.
“What this project does is it enables us to basically bring together all the key partners from the early days of a potential student all the way to companies being ready to graduate,” Whitten said. “This is vital, certainly, for our aspirations in terms of IU Indianapolis for lots of reasons.”
Krueger says a major public investment like this one is often a precursor to private investment.
“This year alone, we’ve attracted almost $160 million of investment in the district … it brings the land available in 16 tech to 30% which is under development or under contract,” Krueger said. “The facility from IU is going to be a further catalyst and driver for that ongoing development of this 16 Tech Innovation District.”
IU LAB will be housed in a six-floor, 150,000-gross-square-foot facility that is expected to open in 2027.