09-26-08 With Innovation Park Under Way, South Bend Area Continues to Break New Ground

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FOR RELEASE FRIDAY, SEPT. 26, 2008: Sept. 26, 2008 With Innovation Park Under Way, South Bend Area Continues to Break New Ground New center enhances area’s reputation for ingenuity, innovation SOUTH BEND, Ind. – In a ceremony symbolic of the South Bend area’s longstanding tradition for breaking new ground, local and visiting dignitaries today took shovels to soil at the site of a new research center and technology park that represents a collaboration between the community and the University of Notre Dame. The project also is affiliated with the Indiana University School of Medicine at South Bend. Innovation Park at Notre Dame, an initiative that will support the needs of researchers and entrepreneurs taking research discoveries from initial concept to commercialization, will provide a major platform for converting intellectual property into economic growth. Research parks associated with other major universities have proven successful in encouraging research, taking innovative ideas to the marketplace, creating relationships between communities and universities, and spurring economic growth. It is expected that Innovation Park at Notre Dame will have the same kind of impact on the South Bend area over time. But Innovation Park will take that formula a step further, using a unique approach that builds on key strengths of both the community and the university. According to Stephen J. Luecke, mayor of South Bend, the new technology park will enhance the area’s position as an emerging center of research, development st and innovation to meet the technological challenges of the 21 century. “What excites me about Innovation Park is that it builds on our local tradition of ingenuity and entrepreneurship, and allows us to take that tradition to the next level,” Luecke said. “The South Bend area has always had a diversified economy, and that has served us very well. Innovation Park will give us a number of new core competencies that we expect to fuel an economic growth spurt well above the national average.”