IU's Commitment to Indiana's Future
Indiana University already makes a difference in the quality of life in the state through our unique programs and institutes, business development efforts, and health innovations. Now IU is ready to advance the state’s commitment to the life sciences through the Indiana Life Sciences Initiative.
The Indiana Life Sciences Initiative will strengthen IU's existing life sciences effort. Indiana University expects to spend $375.5 million on life sciences research in the coming biennium. Already we are building valuable life sciences partnerships with Purdue, Notre Dame, and other state universities, as well as with the private sector.
Through our existing foundation in the life sciences, IU is already turning breakthroughs into business, creating tangible results that will be returned over and over in new money, companies, and jobs for Indiana. When the Lilly Endowment gave IU $155 million for the Indiana Genomics Initiative, IU proved that we can hire and retain top scientists. More than 60 new scientists are bringing in new grants and reporting new discoveries. With our current team of scientists and an influx of new researchers, we can produce the flow of new ideas necessary to build a powerful life sciences economy in Indiana.
IU is at the tipping point in life sciences research and development:
- Since 2000, IU research spending has risen an average of 11 percent per year, totaling more than $1.8 billion during that time.
- IU has raised more than $606 million in non-governmental support for research over the past six years.
- Industry license payments to use IU discoveries have grown to nearly $7 million per year — that's up from just $1.3 million in 1999.
- IU researchers are reporting ever more discoveries that could lead to patents and new products — 257 last year, up from 57 in 1999.
Recent analyses by Indiana University found that IU scientists are just as productive competing for research grants as scientists at other top universities. With the right researchers and laboratory space, IU has demonstrated that we can compete for life sciences research dollars with the best of our peers—and produce results.
But Indiana needs more top scientists if it's going to compete with other states to create better health care and a stronger economy for Hoosiers statewide.
