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About Innovate Indiana

About Innovate Indiana

Helping Indiana thrive

Innovate Indiana serves as the gateway to Indiana University’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our mission is to engage strategic partners to leverage and advance IU’s vast intellectual resources and expertise, enhancing Indiana’s economic growth and contributing to the quality of life for Hoosiers.

We coordinate activities that support innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development in the state, including:

Turning the innovations of IU researchers into new products, services, and companies
Investing in and coordinating IU’s economic development activities across the state
Connecting IU to government, business, and community partners in Indiana, the nation, and the world

Contact us

Innovate Indiana brings together several IU units that lead innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development.

Office of the Vice President for University Relations (VPUR)

VPUR serves as the central point of contact for Innovate Indiana and a gateway to IU’s expertise and resources.

Phone: 317-274-2100
Email: innovate@iu.edu

Visit the VPUR website

Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR)

VPR leads IU’s research enterprise, overseeing all aspects of research at IU’s campuses.

Phone: 812-856-2096
Email: vpr@iu.edu

Visit the VPR website

IU Ventures

IU Ventures catalyzes entrepreneurship by providing support and resources to early-stage startup companies with strong IU ties.

Email: ventures@iu.edu

Visit the IU Ventures website

Innovation and Commercialization Office (ICO)

The Innovation and Commercialization Office facilitates the commercialization of IU discoveries.

Email: ico@iu.edu

Visit the ICO website

By the numbers

500+ licensing agreements generated from IU research since 1991

114 startup companies based on IU intellectual property since 1991

Fostering a culture of perpetual discovery since 1820

The first successful machine for testing blood-alcohol content. The first fluoridated toothpaste. A lifesaving testicular cancer treatment.

All of these advancements have one thing in common―they’re the result of Indiana University innovation. These discoveries and many more are part of the university’s 200-year legacy of finding transformative solutions that improve the lives of people around the world.

Learn about IU’s impact

Explore IU’s history of innovation

You can use this interactive timeline to look back at some of IU’s milestones in innovation over the past two centuries.

1820
The beginning
Indiana University is founded in Bloomington. It is one of the first public universities west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Discover IU’s history
1909
Adjustable hospital bed
IU School of Medicine
Willis D. Gatch, who would later become dean of the School of Medicine, invents the first adjustable hospital bed.
Read about the Gatch bed
1931
Blood-alcohol meter
IU School of Medicine
The first successful machine for testing blood-alcohol content, called the Drunkometer, is invented by faculty member Rolla Harger.
Learn about the Drunkometer
1956
Crest toothpaste
IU School of Dentistry
Crest toothpaste, using a formula developed by three IU researchers, is first sold nationally.
Read about the development of Crest
1963
Echocardiograph
IU School of Medicine
Cardiologist Harvey Feigenbaum pioneers the development of the echocardiograph, which detects heart disease with sound waves.
Learn about Feigenbaum’s work
1974
Testicular cancer treatment
IU School of Medicine
Oncologist Lawrence Einhorn develops a treatment for testicular cancer that raises the survival rate from 5 to 95 percent.
Read about Einhorn’s work
1979
Automatic cardioverter
IU School of Medicine
Cardiologist Douglas Zipes collaborates with Medtronic to invent the automatic cardioverter, a device that corrects heart arrhythmia.
Learn about Zipes’s work
1994
Medical device
IU School of Medicine
Faculty member Keith March invents the Closer, a device that stitches up the opening in an artery where a catheter has been inserted.
Learn about March’s work
1997
IU Advanced Research and Technology Institute (ARTI)
The IU Advanced Research and Technology Institute (IU ARTI) is created to help IU researchers commercialize their discoveries. In 2004, it is renamed the IU Research and Technology Corporation.
2007
Innovate Indiana
IU President Michael McRobbie announces the creation of Innovate Indiana, a university-wide initiative supporting innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development.
2009
Learning management system
Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI
Angel Learning, a startup founded by Professor of Computer Information Technology Ali Jafari, is sold for $100 million.
Read about Jafari’s work
2014
APLU designation
IU is designated an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.
Learn about IU’s economic engagement activities
2017
Suture-free chest tube
IU School of Medicine
Samer Abu-Sultaneh, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics, develops a device that allows doctors to place a chest tube without suturing it to the patient’s chest.
Read about the device
2018
Bone disease treatment
IU School of Medicine
Research conducted by faculty Michael Econs and Kenneth E. White leads to the development of a new drug for the treatment of X-linked hypophosphatemia, a painful and deforming bone disease.
Learn about the research
2019
IU Ventures
The IU Research and Technology Corporation becomes IU Ventures.
Explore IU Ventures
2020
Our Bicentennial
IU celebrates its 200th birthday.
See how we’re celebrating the Bicentennial