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Indiana University

Economic Development & Engagement

Initiative: IPFW Office of Engagement
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana

New Office Makes Business Connections

IPFW Office of Engagement brings the power of two leading universities—IU and Purdue—to businesses in northeast Indiana

Sean Ryan understands the value of collaboration. As the director of university engagement at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), he strives to facilitate technology transfer, innovative business development, and economic growth in northeast Indiana—a goal made easier by relying on the strengths of Indiana University and Purdue University.

“Rather than looking at engagement as a broad institution, we’ve done a 180-degree turn to focus on a geographic region,” he says. “And each university brings complementary strengths,” he says, from IU’s strengths in informatics, medicine, and business to Purdue’s engineering and agricultural programs.

Established in January 2006, the engagement office serves 13 counties in the area, and Ryan works with both startup companies and multibillion-dollar corporations in an effort to drive economic development, providing everything from training and career fairs to licensing technology. Matching IU and Purdue with businesses creates valuable opportunities—for the universities, it provides jobs for students; for the businesses, the collaboration with the universities helps them get licensing, research, and technical service agreements. “The Office of Engagement fills a real unmet need in our region,” says Kirk Kemmish, president of the Northeast Indiana Corporate Council. “Before its creation, area businesses would often complain we were not on a level playing field with other communities touting connections to large research universities. We can now ‘do them two better’ and offer the diverse capabilities of three universities.”

Technology Showcases Bring Products to Market

Other big initiatives for the office include the business plan competition, IU-Purdue technology showcases, and the Business and Education Summit series, a connection between K-12 educators and the business community. The technology showcases are a great example of the collaboration between institutions: At the second annual showcase last fall, the presentations were evenly divided between the universities. The goal is to show university research and technology to interested entrepreneurs and investors who can take the products to market—another way to combine intellectual property with economic development.

Reaching Out to Business Clients

The mission of the office is to “match IPFW, Purdue, and Indiana University expertise and intellectual property to the regional needs of northeast Indiana to enhance economic development and improve the quality of life for its citizens.” Ryan has been working hard to meet these goals, and so far has been successful. “We started from ground zero in 2006 and have had an impressive success rate in creating collaboration,” he says. The office has hosted 39 campus visits for businesses and community groups, has made presentations to more than 30 community groups, and has 203 business clients.

It’s an impressive start for such a new office and another example of the impact university partnerships can have on a community. Says Michael A. Wartell, IPFW Chancellor: “When a university becomes integral to the community in this way, mutual support grows and both the community and university become stronger as a result.”

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