Indiana Tech has received a $21 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its initiative, College and Community Collaboration (CCC). With the support from the grant, Indiana Tech will collaborate with a range of community and corporate partners to establish a new advanced manufacturing and innovation center located on the Electric Works campus in Fort Wayne; launch new talent attraction, development and retention initiatives; develop new programs that will support regional entrepreneurs; and build additional services that will help provide students of all ages with better access to training, certifications and degrees.

“All of us at Indiana Tech are grateful for the support of Lilly Endowment for this innovative initiative,” said Indiana Tech President Karl Einolf. “Our goals when developing our project proposal were to help our city and the entire region thrive by developing and retaining talent, supporting innovation at area companies, and advancing the work of area entrepreneurs. By doing so, we’ll grow the economy from within, and improve our community’s quality of life and place by connecting student energy, talent, and skills to economic and civic projects. We believe this project will be transformational for our region.”

Indiana Tech’s initiative is comprised of three main components:

• Transformation of Building 36 on the Electric Works campus into a center for HardTech and advanced manufacturing innovation that helps grow local companies by connecting them to university-led research, development, and training. It will provide training related to Industry 4.0, business assistance for small-to-large organizations, spaces for business innovation teams and startups, and a variety of event spaces to host community and innovation gatherings as part of the curation of the innovation ecosystem at Electric Works and throughout Northeast Indiana. Under the leadership of Indiana Tech and its Northeast Indiana Center for Engineering (NICE), Building 36 will facilitate and include:
  • Research and development
  • Testing and prototyping
  • Small-batch production
  • Workforce training
  • Creator space/maker space
  • Automation innovation and development
  • Enterprise support services

• Next/Gen, a program that will provide unique learning experiences that connect talent to the community in ways that create strong bonds and lead to enhanced talent attraction and retention. The program includes significantly expanded student service learning for Indiana Tech and other regional students, a new Fellows program focused on keeping top talent in the region, and assigning Indiana Tech students as project partners and mentors for Amp Lab high school students.
  
  The Next/Gen Fellowship will recruit outstanding student leaders from the region and across the country to address larger problem-solving around the region’s most complex issues. Challenges will be submitted to the Next/Gen Fellows by area companies, nonprofits, civic organizations and communities for the development of solutions over a 1-2 year time period of collaborative work by the Fellows team.
• Public Workshop, a program to help diverse learners and entrepreneurs access support and overcome systemic barriers to advancing their education. Public Workshop will work to bring the benefits of the Indiana Tech initiative to wider regional audiences, helping more area residents and entrepreneurs reach their full potential by connecting them to a diverse set of resources. Working with partners around the region, Public Workshop will connect learners and entrepreneurs with wrap-around services such as early childhood education, affordable housing, training pathway guidance, and resources for personal health.

In developing its grant proposal, Indiana Tech worked with a range of community and organizational partners, including the City of Fort Wayne, Ancora, Inc., the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center, NEI, Fort Wayne Community Schools and the Amp Lab at Electric Works, Greater Fort Wayne, Inc., neighborhood leaders from the neighborhoods around Electric Works and the Indiana Tech main campus, area foundations and corporate partners from around the region.

Indiana Tech is one of 13 Indiana higher education institutions receiving grants through the latest round of implementation grants through CCC, a competitive Lilly Endowment initiative.

“While varied in scope and reach, the proposed initiatives and projects reflect a commitment by all stakeholders, inclusive of faculty, staff and students from these institutions, business leaders, government officials, and community leaders, to creating vibrant communities for all residents to enjoy and in which to thrive,” said Jennett M. Hill, president of Lilly Endowment. “The Endowment looks forward to seeing all the projects in the CCC initiative evolve. We are enthusiastic about the prospects for both the institutions and communities and are eager to see these institutions and their community stakeholders collaborate to breathe life into their promising projects.”

Lilly Endowment launched the CCC initiative in early 2023. The initiative is designed to encourage Indiana’s colleges and universities to work closely with community stakeholders to envision and jointly undertake significant community development efforts to create more vibrant places in which to live, learn, work and play.

About Lilly Endowment Inc. Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J. K. Lilly and his sons, Eli and J.K. Jr., through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with its founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. The Endowment funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion, and maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.