Nice Grouping

Six finalists vie for the annual Innovation & Economic Prosperity University Awards

by ADAM BRUNS

USF Health’s new Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute is anchoring Water Street Tampa — a $3 billion urban business, innovation, residential and tourist destination.

Artist’s rendering courtesy of USF

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) counts 239 public research universities, land-grant institutions, state university systems and affiliated organizations across North America as members. In June, the organization named six finalists for its Innovation & Economic Prosperity (IEP) University Awards, to be presented in San Diego, California, in November:

IEP Place Award
Recognizing that many students from a local high school in a low-income area weren’t planning on attending college because they didn’t have the experiences and tools necessary to do so, California State University, Northridge (CSUN) surveyed the community and found financial issues were the biggest barrier to college access. So CSUN launched the Bridge to the Future (B2F) program, which provides a four-year, tuition-free education to a cohort of students from the school district. As new cohorts are launched, CSUN aims to have 100 students per year in the program.

Purdue University launched its Center for Regional Development in 2005 to deepen its economic engagement across the state and region. Partnering with Ball State University, the center’s Hometown Collaboration Initiative works to grow local capacity in leadership and economic placemaking, and has worked with 19 Indiana communities, recruited 400 Hoosiers to serve on local committees and drawn more than 1,200 residents to community forums.

IEP Innovation Award
The University of Michigan’s Small Company Innovation Program (SCIP) launched in 2015 to help emerging companies connect to researchers and labs at the state’s public universities. The program co-funds projects statewide through a network of 15 public universities called the Michigan Corporate Relations Network. SCIP to date has facilitated 80 collaborative projects involving nearly 70 companies that led to over $1.7 million in awards.

The University of South Florida (USF) worked with community partners to drive development in the underutilized center of downtown Tampa. USF Health’s new Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute is anchoring the construction of Water Street Tampa — a $3 billion urban business, innovation, residential and tourist destination.

IEP Talent Award
At North Carolina State University, the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic works to integrate research, teaching, and work-and-learning opportunities to help students build the next generation of businesses in Raleigh. Since the program launched in 2015 with just nine students, the Clinic has increased service to include nearly 800 students representing 22 majors. Since 2015, 17 student startups have launched, raising over $5.6 million in outside funding.

Recognizing the far-reaching impact of illiteracy on the community, Wayne State University established the Office of Adult Literacy in 2012 and launched the Harris Literacy Program in 2013. The literacy center has served more than 1,700 Detroiters since 2013. Additionally, Wayne State launched a suite of programs in 2018-19 to help adults with some college, but no degree, reaching out to nearly 53,000 individuals. As a result of these city-wide and regional collaborations, Detroit was recently recognized as a Talent Hub by the Lumina Foundation.

ASU: Location, Location, Innovation

A rendering of the Novus Innovation Corridor, located adjacent to ASU’s largest campus in Tempe, Arizona Image courtesy of Catellus

From startups to Fortune 500 companies, businesses gain a competitive edge when they partner with Arizona State University, named No. 1 in innovation by U.S. News & World Report for five consecutive years. Innovation Zones at ASU is a unique portfolio that offers corporate partners an opportunity to co-locate with Arizona State University in one of six locations, each with distinct advantages, from proximity to ASU and corporate neighbors to programs, resources and room for growth.

More than 100 organizations from all over the world now operate at sites within the Innovation Zones portfolio, including Amazon Web Services, Starbucks, Amkor Technology and GoDaddy. One organization that recently made the move is Infosys, an international consulting company that creates digital platforms.

Infosys President Ravi Kumar S. says the company chose to establish its sixth U.S. hub in an Innovation Zone to reap the benefits of proximity to one of the nation’s fastest growing research universities and its ready pool of technical and creative talent. “There was the academic ecosystem and availability of a large pool of talent that we will nurture and build through our hubs,” he says.

“ASU is actively reimagining the role of universities embedded in their surrounding communities by driving research, education, workforce and economic development,” says Sethuraman Panchanathan, executive vice president of Knowledge Enterprise and chief research and innovation officer at ASU. “Our unique approach to partnering with corporates is to work in a symbiotic manner to ensure that we find the perfect fit.”

Six places where business thrives

Companies that locate in an Innovation Zone benefit from direct connections to ASU’s 85,000 diverse, talented on-campus students and its world-renowned researchers. Businesses have the opportunity to collaborate with leading national experts in artificial intelligence and wearable technologies, biosciences and health, business, cybersecurity, logistics and supply chain, materials and manufacturing, space exploration, sustainability and more.

Here’s a snapshot of ASU’s six Innovation Zones and the unique opportunities they offer businesses:

1) SkySong, The ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center. A community of more than 60 established and new companies in technology-driven markets, including information technology, education and health care, it is also a nationally leading center for the support of entrepreneurship and innovation.

2) Novus Innovation Corridor. One of the nation’s most progressive mixed-use urban developments, the corridor offers companies flexibility and freedom to build intentionally designed, next-generation headquarters in the urban core of a major metropolitan area. The proximity to ASU in Tempe, Arizona, offers unparalleled access to talent, synergies and collaboration. It’s currently home to State Farm’s 2-million-square-foot regional hub.

3) Arizona Health Solutions Corridor. A leading biomedical discovery hub, it offers opportunities for premier academic and clinical collaborations in biotechnology, medical innovation and comple-mentary industries. The center’s proximity to world-class clinical care at Mayo Clinic, research facilities, award-winning academic programs and private industry players make it a regional, national and international destination for patients, visitors and biomedical professionals.

4) ASU Research Park. The premier research and technology business park in the Phoenix metropolitan area, it’s home to many of the area’s technology and business headquarters. It’s a prime location for headquarters or regional offices that require connections to an established commercial corridor and ready access to transportation networks.

5) ASU Polytechnic campus. The future home of the ASU Polytechnic Research Park, the campus specializes in hands-on exploration of innovative solutions in aviation, alternative energy, human-technology integration, comprehensive commercial printing and design services, and on-demand digital manufacturing.

6) ASU West campus. Businesses will be located adjacent to a campus that serves a diverse student body of nearly 5,000 students engaged in more than 110 degree programs from colleges and schools that include New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, W. P. Carey School of Business, Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, and College of Health Solutions.

To learn more about the unique opportunities offered by Innovation Zones at ASU, visit innovationzones.asu.edu.

Adam Bruns
Editor in Chief of Site Selection magazine

Adam Bruns is editor in chief and head of publications for Site Selection, and before that has served as managing editor beginning in February 2002. In the course of reporting hundreds of stories for Site Selection, Adam has visited companies and communities around the globe. A St. Louis native who grew up in the Kansas City suburbs, Adam is a 1986 alumnus of Knox College, and resided in Chicago; Midcoast Maine; Savannah, Georgia; and Lexington, Kentucky, before settling in the Greater Atlanta community of Peachtree Corners, where he lives with his wife and daughter.