Vice President for Engagement

Business Formation

Entrepreneurs are Indiana’s biggest cash crop. IU provides ideal conditions for cultivating entrepreneurs. Our top-ranked entrepreneurship programs and flourishing business incubators are yielding startups in high-growth fields, and new jobs are cropping up around the state.

Seed Capital

Indiana’s business community can tap into IU’s resources for assistance with business formation, strategic planning, and acquisition of venture capital. The Office of Engagement can connect you to experts in your area of business, or direct you to one of our business incubators so you can grow your business.

• Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation provides information and resources for writing business plans, attracting investors, and managing your business.
• IU Emerging Technologies Center offers support to life sciences, biotechnology, and bioinformatics companies in Indianapolis. 
• The IU Innovation Center, located in the Indiana University Technology Park and Corridor, houses information technology enterprises and life science companies in Bloomington. 
• IU Research & Technology Corporation (IURTC) helps Indiana companies develop commercially viable technologies.
• Innovate Indiana Fund provides start-up funding for faculty who want to create businesses based on their research ideas.

IU also has partnerships with the Inventrek Technology Park in Kokomo and the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center in Fort Wayne. 

Facts At-A-Glance

• U.S. News & World Report ranked the Kelley School of Business No. 3 for its undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship programs among all universities and No. 1 among public universities.
• The Kelley School’s Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is one of the world’s largest and most renowned entrepreneurship facilities in the nation.
• The IU Emerging Technologies Center in downtown Indianapolis has generated several fledging companies and more than 370 high-tech jobs.
• In 2010, the IU Research and Technology Corporation drafted and filed a record 228 patents, helped protect and commercialize more than 154 IU inventions, and launched 4 start-up companies.