Brenden Moore
The University of Illinois Springfield, through the recently acquired business and social innovation incubator Innovate Springfield, will house the first hub of the Illinois Innovation Network, state and local officials announced Tuesday.
The announcement comes months after state legislators appropriated $500 million in seed money to the U of I system-led initiative, which will have hubs across the state connecting to the Chicago-based Discovery Partners Institute.
The goal is to accelerate economic growth statewide through research and innovation.
“We could not be more pleased to be playing a key role to help facilitate this milestone moment in our collective history,” UIS Chancellor Susan Koch said. “I am confident the Springfield hub will be a smashing success.”
The university took ownership of Innovate Springfield on Aug. 1. It will be supported initially by $1.5 million seed money over the next three years from the university, city of Springfield, the Land of Lincoln Economic Development Corporation and the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln.
Koch said the university has submitted a proposal to the DPI, which will likely tap into that $500 million for “a significant investment in building and expanding” the hub in downtown Springfield.
For now, the incubator will continue to be located at 15 S. Old State Capitol Plaza, but it is widely expected that it will move in the near future to a larger location somewhere else downtown.
While Mayor Jim Langfelder has pushed for the university to have a presence on the YWCA block at Fourth Street and Capitol Avenue, the university has yet to commit to a site.
But no matter where the permanent home of the Springfield hub ends up being, university officials believe it has the potential to transform the city’s economy along with the broader region.
“Together, though, this effort will make Springfield part of a network that will be home to literally hundreds of world-class researchers, thousands of students and partners at top universities and corporations,” said U of I system president Timothy Killeen. “It will give this community access to the very best intellectual power that we can muster in every discipline.”
Killeen said the network has the potential to “foster pioneering discovery that will not just rival Silicon Valley, but leapfrog it.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has advocated for an innovation network of this sort both as governor and when he was in the private sector, listed some companies started by U of I alumni and said the number one priority was to “have those companies grow here.”
“We have fantastic research universities doing world class innovation,” Rauner said. “We need to make sure that we collaborate, coordinate, communicate, partner and accelerate the economic development that can come from that kind of innovation and fundamental research.”
Other public officials in attendance touched on the need to retain and grow local talent, an effort that has won buy-in from officials in both major political parties along with business and civic leaders.
“We continue to have young people get their education in Illinois and leave, particularly when it relates to technology and research and innovation,” said U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria. “And this is going to help to stop that, to provide an opportunity for people here in Springfield or Champaign or in Peoria to work in collaboration with the DPI in Chicago and keep our homegrown students in Illinois.”
U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, said a hub like Innovate Springfield could be the difference between the “the next great entrepreneur coming out of UIS ... being able to incubate their idea into a reality and not just a dream.”
State Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, R-Leland Grove, said there’s no reason Sangamon County “shouldn’t be a beacon for innovation.”
In addition to partnering with UIS faculty and students, Innovate Springfield will soon be able to collaborate with incubators on U of I’s Champaign-Urbana and Chicago campuses, along with other downstate hubs and the DPI.
The incubator now operates under UIS’s Center for State Policy and Leadership.
The incubator already has 45 members who are actively starting companies, said Innovate Springfield executive director Katie Davison. That work continues, just with more resources, she said.
“As a university-led incubator, we will increase our members’ access to broader statewide resources and enhance the growth opportunities for both the incubator and our members, ultimately leading to a sustainable future for Innovate Springfield,” Davison said.
Work is also underway on a plan that will establish an opening date and flesh out details for DPI, the Chicago-based centerpiece of the innovation network, the university said in a release.
