Indianapolis, IN – With a focus on expanding Indiana’s entrepreneurial environment, Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) and AgriNovus Indiana today unveiled their new report, Unlocking IP: Leveraging Indiana’s R&D Assets to Boost Entrepreneurship.
In partnership with EntreWorks Consulting, the report outlines opportunities to increase support for startups, identify emerging programs and priorities, and create a base of home-grown tech talent and an expanded innovation network across the state.
“Indiana is often cited as one of the best places to start a business, which is a great starting point,” said Melina Kennedy, CEO of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. “The data released in this report confirms that while we have some great strengths to build up, we have more work to do to as we still lag behind our peers in number of actual new business start-ups per year. The great news is we have a lot of assets and momentum to build upon, the missing piece may be more coordination between and leveraging of the many entities doing great work in this space statewide.”
The report highlights Indiana’s existing strengths, including:
- One of the best states to start a business according to Forbes.
- Headquarters to many innovative companies, ranking 14th among states in corporate investment in R&D with several noted corporate innovation programs.
- Home to three R1 universities that rank globally for patenting activity with world class innovation programs that span these and many other Indiana colleges and universities throughout the state
- A robust network of Entrepreneurial Support Organizations (ESOs) that support tech development.
- State programs that support innovation and entrepreneurship including investments in Elevate Ventures, a second round of READI, and matching funds for federal SBIR and STTR grantees
- Unprecedented federal funding in programs such as the Heartland BioWorks Tech Hub, the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, and the Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Hub.
Building on these strengths, the report also includes stakeholder inputs that suggest an opportunity for greater collaboration and cross-pollination through breaking down siloes that have resulted in lagging new business startup activity.
“This report validates the tremendous work that has gone into building out Indiana’s robust entrepreneurial ecosystem,” says CICP CEO Melina Kennedy. “It also provides constructive recommendations to a path forward to further strengthening this ecosystem, building on the individual elements that are in place today.”
Through new programming, Indiana can better integrate these individual pockets of success. As an example, industry-led and university-supported challenges can attract entrepreneurs around real-world problems, knitting together the corporate, university, state, and other ESOs’ programming and capabilities.
For example, AgriNovus Indiana’s HungerTech and Producer-Led Innovation Challenges continue to attract increasing numbers of students, startups and existing companies over the past four years. The annual program has become a springboard for agbioscience innovation with all past winners having either been acquired, received follow-on funding or acceptance into another accelerator program.
Launched just four years ago, both HungerTech and Producer-Led Innovation Challenge have brought together entrepreneurs to address real world problems identified by our industry partners, resulting in big increases in the number of entrepreneurs participating in these programs.
Other CICP programs have focused on bridging siloes in other industries. TechPoint’s Founders’ Network and BioCrossroads’ AXIS programs are examples of programming that bring together entrepreneurs and support organizations with high-quality peer mentoring.
Building on the success of these and other programs will be critical to strengthening Indiana’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. “By focusing on accelerating new business startups, Indiana can unleash an engine for economic growth and prosperity that complements our existing base of advanced industries,” added Kennedy.
For more information about Central Indiana Corporate Partnership and the Unlocking IP: Leveraging Indiana’s R&D Assets to Boost Entrepreneurship, visit cicpindiana.com.
###
About Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP)
The Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) was formed in 1999 to bring together the chief executives of the region’s prominent corporations, foundations and universities in a strategic and collaborative effort dedicated to Indiana’s continued prosperity and growth. To advance this mission, CICP sponsors five key talent and industry sector initiatives, AgriNovus Indiana, Ascend Indiana, BioCrossroads, Conexus Indiana and TechPoint, each of which addresses challenges and opportunities unique to its respective area: agbiosciences, talent and workforce development, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and logistics and technology. To learn more, visit www.cicpindiana.com.
About AgriNovus Indiana
AgriNovus Indiana, a branded initiative of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP), is a non-profit organization focused on advancing the agbioscience sector by connecting and convening stakeholders to deliver innovative ways to inspire and attract agbiosciences talent, companies and innovation to the state. Learn more at www.AgriNovusIndiana.com.
