IU to commit $111M to education, research and innovation that accelerate economic competitiveness

In what is one of the largest commitments made by a U.S. college or university to high-tech industry and national defense, Indiana University is investing at least $111 million to initiatives that will strengthen IU’s national leadership in microelectronics. 

Through targeted research, innovation, and hands-on training for students, these investments will also enhance IU’s growing partnership with Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, the third-largest naval installation in the world. IU and Crane are two of our state’s most important economic anchors, and this heightened collaboration will enable us to build talent pipelines in key sectors, escalate our state’s economic competitiveness, and strengthen our nation’s security. 

Aligned with the business and industry engagement objectives of the IU 2030 strategic plan, we are investing in academic and research programs that prepare students for in-demand jobs, new faculty appointments, state-of-the-art facilities, and collaborations with companies working to develop technologies for both defense and civilian uses. 

We are also launching several new collaborative research efforts in cybersecurity, technology transfer, kinesiology, optics, artificial intelligence, edge computing, secure microelectronics, sensor data fusion, and more. 

These include a $10 million investment to develop a new Center for Reliable and Trusted Electronics. Known as IU CREATE, the center will bring together IU researchers focused on protecting electronics, including those used in defense and space environments, from damage caused by high levels of radiation. 

More than $23 million will be aimed at recruiting faculty with expertise in such emerging areas as AI, machine learning, image analysis, nanotechnology, and quantum information as part of our ambitious Faculty 100 hiring initiative. 

We will invest in facilities, equipment, and start-up costs to support these faculty as they advance research projects that will lead to practical applications in the public and private sector. 

Taken together, IU’s investments will accelerate Indiana’s success in seizing opportunities made possible by the recently enacted CHIPS and Science Act, which calls for a historic U.S. investment of nearly $280 billion in new funding to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors. 

This is what IU does. We think big. And we lead. 

Pamela Whitten

President
Indiana University