Indiana as the Silicon Valley of the Midwest? How key players across the state aim to make it happen

Indiana is poised to become a global leader in life sciences and biotechnology – think lab-grown organs, plastic-eating bacteria and quantum machine learning that could revolutionize cancer treatments – thanks to a project decades in the making that spans partnerships with universities, municipalities, state government and life sciences behemoths like Eli Lilly.

Now armed with a $51 million implementation grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Indiana’s Heartland BioWorks , one of 31 regional technology hubs across the country, hopes to make the Hoosier state a Silicon Valley of the Midwest.

If all goes well, Heartland BioWorks leaders expect an economic windfall in the next 10 years, including the launch of 40+ companies, 50 or more FDA-approved products, 9,000 new jobs and billions in economic output.

A project with deep roots

Indiana’s pursuit of a tech hub – a place dense with startups and a talented workforce, stocked with the capital and research potential to ignite the economy – was decades in the making.

In the early 2000s, Indiana was beginning to see a decline in traditional manufacturing and agriculture jobs. Investing in life sciences, with the allure of capitalizing on rapidly advancing technology and the industry’s high-paying jobs, was a way to not only stem the bleeding but transform Indiana into a “Silicon Prairie,” according to The Herald-Times archive.

In 2002, a group of Hoosier stakeholders set out to do just that. They created a life sciences initiative that has since become BioCrossroads , a Heartland BioWorks partner that calls itself a “catalyst” for the life sciences industry. Working in tandem with Indiana University, Purdue, Eli Lilly and the Indianapolis mayor, the 2002 group was the state’s way of establishing an “intentional, collaborative life sciences network” that would help grow the sector – and it did. Between 2002 and 2022, the economic impact of the life sciences in Indiana grew nearly $50 billion.

Today, BioCrossroads is managed by the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP), with a board full of industry leaders and IU connections, including Provost Rahul Shrivastav, School of Medicine dean Jay Hess and Trustee Cathy Langham.

Heartland BioWorks itself is administered by the Applied Research Institute, a nonprofit addressed to IU’s Innovation Center in Bloomington. ARI is also a product of the CICP, formed in 2017 after the Lilly Endowment granted CICP $16 million.

The life sciences initiative is just one of ARI’s projects – the organization initially began as the Indiana Innovation Institute with a focus on NSWC Crane and increasing defense investment in the state, said Andrew Kossack, ARI’s executive vice president of partnerships.

In 2020, the organization changed its name to ARI. About a year and a half ago, Kossack said, ARI collaborated with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation to expand its mission to more than just defense. Now, the institute serves as a “conduit,” Kossack said, connecting public and private entities with the funds they need to supercharge Indiana’s economy.

However, defense is still a major goal of the institute, which also administers the Silicon Crossroads Microelectronic Commons Hub , a CHIPS and Science Act-funded initiative to ensure microelectronics are manufactured in the U.S. That project set the stage for local developments late last year, such as IU’s announcement of an expanded partnership with Crane and a $111 million investment in microelectronics, which an IU news release called one of the “largest commitments made by a college or university to high-tech industry and national defense.”

Today, ARI’s board includes IU President Pamela Whitten and Purdue President Mung Chiang, as well as Ann Lathrop, who represents the governor, and Tina Peterson, president and CEO of Regional Opportunity Initiatives in the Indiana Uplands region. An advisory member from Crane, Kyle Werner, also sits on the board, Kossack said. Meanwhile, their full-time staff has grown close to 50, several of whom worked previously for the IEDC.

“It's fair to say that we're working very closely, you know, sort of in a hand-in-glove fashion with the state and the IEDC,” Kossack said.

Former mayor of Bloomington John Fernandez is also involved with the project as Regional Innovation Officer for Heartland BioWorks. Having led the U.S. Economic Development Administration under President Barack Obama, Fernandez said the federal government considered the concept of regional innovation centers as many as three decades ago.

When the CHIPS and Sciences Act passed, the idea became real, Fernandez said.

CHIPS hands Indiana the “porterhouse” of economic development

The CHIPS and Science Act, bipartisan legislation designed to foster American innovation while boosting national security and supply chain strength, has been a hallmark of the Biden administration, but the bill was pioneered by Indiana's own Sen. Todd Young.

While the legislation moved through Congress, Young was in constant conversation with Indiana leaders like Gov. Eric Holcomb and then-Purdue president Mitch Daniels, the New York Times reported.

IU was also looped in, lobbying Congress on issues related to CHIPS and its implementation, according to federal disclosures.

The investment paid off. By the legislation’s passage, Indiana had already made significant ground in growing its life sciences and defense sectors, making it an ideal candidate for federal cash. Now it's one of four states to lead both a microelectronics hub and a regional tech hub, and one of 12 regional tech hubs to receive implementation funding.

Young put it succinctly in a IndyStar column in July, calling the “CHIPS” portion of the bill a “sizzle” and the “and Science” portion a steak.

“And Indiana just landed itself a porterhouse,” he wrote.

Even the life sciences portion of the CHIPS investment boils down to national security.

“When it comes to the future of innovation and biotech, we want that, for national security reasons, to be produced domestically and have secure supply chains so that we don't run into a situation where we're scrambling to find medicines like we were scrambling to find toilet paper in the spring of 2020,” Kossack said.

What is Heartland BioWorks doing with the $51 million?

The essential vision of Heartland BioWorks is a pipeline of human, animal and plant science innovation. The critical pieces along that pipeline include workforce training and job placement, mentorship and grants to help startups launch new products and manufacture at a greater scale and a physical space to do it all under one roof. The $51 million will go toward creating those pieces, which all come with catchy names – BioTrain, BioLaunch and BioWorks HQ – and will be situated in the 16 Tech District, just north of IU Indianapolis.

The grant will ultimately help further this goal by catalyzing private investment, Fernandez said.

“So in that context $51 million is a lot of money, but it’s just the beginning,” he said.

The concept of a centralized training, research and manufacturing campus is relatively new, but not unprecedented. Fernandez said the project is modeled on the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training in Dublin, Ireland, where Indiana already sends many of its workers to be trained.

Beyond mere economic development, the project is also about equity, seeking to reduce barriers to education and workforce training by helping connect marginalized populations in Indianapolis with things like transportation and childcare. And while it's been carried through by multiple Republican governors over the years, the project is far from political, Fernandez said.

Bloomington soon to be “front and center”

While Indianapolis is at the crux of this current project, Kossack said the hub is really about Indiana as a whole. In the future, Kossack cited Bloomington, Fishers and Warsaw as potential places to invest.

“Bloomington is going to be front and center moving forward,” he said.

While Bloomington may not be intimately involved currently, IU’s been there from the beginning.

In 2005, then-IU president Adam Herbert told the Board of Trustees that political and business leaders in the state had zeroed in on the life sciences as an economic development priority.

“Over the course of the past two years, what we have tried to do is to focus priority attention on the alignment of our institutional priorities with those of the state,” he said.

Most recently, IU announced a $250 million life sciences investment in 2023, including funding for two new research institutes at IU Indianapolis in what will be called the SciTech Corridor, new life sciences faculty and lab renovations.

Fernandez said IU’s investment in Indianapolis, as well as existing assets like the School of Medicine and Luddy School of Informatics, have been important pieces of the project. Kossack also credited the IUPUI split in fueling Heartland BioWorks.

“It's certainly related,” he said. “It adds to the momentum really across the state just by giving us another vehicle for research investment in our capital.”

“Industry titans” like Corteva, Elanco and Eli Lilly are other partners already equipped to invest in plant, animal and human health sciences, respectively, Kossack said. Amid the buzz words are tangible inventions made to solve growing challenges like climate change and human diseases, such as Elanco’s cow feed that reduces greenhouse gas emissions or new drugs to combat Alzheimers.

Though Heartland BioWorks’ vision may not be fully realized until 2034, Fernandez said people are beginning to recognize Indiana as a leader in this sector.

“Flyover country is becoming less of a dominant moniker,” he said.

Reach Marissa Meador at mmeador@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana as the Silicon Valley of the Midwest? How key players across the state aim to make it happen