Downtown is renowned for many things. It’s the center of the best host city in the country. It serves as the beating heart of the state economy, housing Fortune 500 companies and centering the BioHeartland. It is both the amateur sports capital of the world and the emerging capital of women’s sports.
Underpinning each of these titles is human capital, a pool of top-tier talent injecting energy, innovation and entrepreneurship into our institutions. To sustain this momentum, downtown stakeholders are wondering: How do we keep this talent pool growing? More and more, they are looking to the Indiana University Indianapolis campus.
IU Indianapolis already boasts a strong track record of supporting downtown. Major corporate partners engage our students through arrangements like the Lilly Co-op and the Kelley Indianapolis Business Plus program. Our students are at the center of major events like the 2026 NCAA Men’s Final Four weekend.
Many of our partnerships are the product of our campus’s reputation of excellence. We are the only R1 research institution based in the capital city, placing us in the top tier of U.S. research universities. This spring, we received the top ranking in the Cure Innovation Index for universities “Punching Above their Weight in Biomedical Innovation” for how effectively we translate scientific discovery into real-world health care solutions and treatments. The number of invention disclosures from our faculty saw significant growth over the past year, each marking the first step toward patents, startups or partnerships.
The result of all this is that IU Indianapolis is becoming an ever-more critical piece of the downtown biomedical ecosystem, alongside partners like IU Health, Indiana Biosciences Research Institute and others, as well as our colleagues at the IU School of Medicine, IU LAB and IU Innovates.
Our classrooms and programs are key to this paradigm shift. With “service to the state” as a central pillar of President Pamela Whitten’s IU 2030 Strategic Plan, we are prioritizing programs that meet current and future employer demand. In the past two years alone, we have launched bachelor’s degrees in biomedical engineering, biomedical sciences and biochemistry, as well as master’s degrees in the business of biotechnology, biomedical engineering, and leadership and organizational systems, and a doctorate in computational medicine.
Once they graduate, our students stay: Nearly 90% of IU Indianapolis students remain in the state after graduation, and 75% of graduates with a full-time job work in Indianapolis. Ask students on our campus, and they will tell you that working in the city after graduation is what draws them to our institution. It’s quite a draw, as undergraduate beginner enrollment has grown 23% over the past two years.
Indiana University Indianapolis looks to grow its presence in the biotech and biomed fields. (IBJ photo/Lesley Weidenbener)
With the opening of new facilities this fall, including the STEM Lab and the much-anticipated James T. Morris Arena (also known as “The Jim”), the momentum continues to roll. But despite the energy and the accolades, we know we need to be even more intentional to fulfill our potential as a leading urban university.
Indianapolis has the opportunity to benefit from greater collaboration between higher education and downtown stakeholders across private industry, nonprofits and government. That’s why we’re aiming to connect with more partners to maximize impact.
Do you have a business challenge? Let our top-flight faculty researchers engineer a solution. Are you looking to connect your organization to a pipeline of skilled workers? Coordinate with us on internships and experiential learning that will deliver value in the short term and innovative employees in the long term. Can you foresee shifting demand for talent and skill needs across your sector? Let us know, and we will tailor our programs to stay ahead of the trends.
Downtown’s future is calling, and IU Indianapolis intends to be at the center of it. Partner with us to help power your future, too.•
__________
Ramchand is chancellor of Indiana University Indianapolis.