Video Transcript – IU Innovation Center
INDIANA UNIVERSITY INNOVATION CENTER
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA
INNOVATION, ACCELERATED BY TRADITION
ENGAGING INDIANA
David Gard, Executive Director, Office of the Vice President for Engagement: “The Indiana University Innovation Center really compliments our overall strategy of engaging Indiana, really harnessing the resources, the assets, and the technology of Indiana University ultimately for the benefit of the state.”
SUPPORTING GREAT IDEAS
Bill Stephan, Vice President for Engagement: “There will be adequate space and infrastructure, equipment, and support that’s needed to take great ideas and move them into the marketplace. It really communicates to a broader audience about the role that Indiana University is playing in terms of growing research activity in the life science, biosciences, and in information technology in ways that contribute to the economic vitality of the state of Indiana.”
LINKING EXPERTISE
Tony Armstrong, President and CEO, IU Research and Technology Corporation: “The university has, for a number of years, been a big part of the economic development of the state. We’re now working with capital providers and companies and trying to help them figure out within the university system where they might find assistance, where they might find ideas, where they might expertise that we can link them to. The Indiana University Innovation Center will be a facility where we can have interaction between faculty in information technology and life sciences to have those interactions and those abilities for students and faculty, capital providers, and hopefully build those into companies we can build here in Bloomington. ”
NEW VENTURES POWER NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Ted Widlanski, Associate Vice President, Office of the Vice President for Engagement, and Professor, Department of Chemistry, Indiana University Bloomington: “It’s always been teaching, research, and service. And service was always defined fairly narrowly. What people are starting to realize now is that faculty and the university has an obligation that goes outside those three areas, and that is economic development. If we can create one medium-sized company here that generates a couple hundred jobs, we can have a huge impact on the economy of Bloomington. What’s going to be great about this facility is that we’re going to tailor the space to each person who needs it. Now that it’s there, it should be really exciting to people who will point at it and say ‘We can have companies there. We can have Bloomington-based companies that do high technology life sciences, information technology. These are the places that are going to create jobs for people in the future.‘”
