South Bend-Elkhart area to work with Notre Dame on jobs, development with $42 million grant

ELKHART — The South Bend-Elkhart region landed another big investment.

The Lilly Endowment Inc. is giving a $42.4 million grant to the University of Notre Dame and South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership to form Labs for Industry Futures and Transformation, an initiative intended to bring together education, business and economic development in the region to make the region more competitive globally.

The Rev. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame, told a crowd of nearly 200 gathered at ETHOS Innovation Center that the region is responding by coming together to become a better place to live, but also compete in the global economy.

“We find ourselves in a different time when change is lightning fast, often disruptive, but full of promise,” he said. “We can become a powerful center for innovation and initiative. We must seize this opportunity Lilly has given us.”

The Lilly grant, similar to ones awarded to Fort Wayne, Columbus and Bloomington regions, is intended to help the region train, attract and keep talent by focusing on innovation and technology.

“We try to look for areas that have a strong core of assets that they can be brought together to drive greater economic benefit,” said Rob Smith, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for community development.

In northern Indiana, a $42 million Indiana Regional Cities grant four years ago focused on investing in quality of place projects across St. Joseph, Elkhart and Marshall counties. That grant prompted regional collaboration and yielded further investment in training for the region’s students and workers.

This grant is expected to bring together educational institutions, including school systems and higher education, with business and manufacturing. A 2019 Brookings report indicated that the South Bend-Elkhart region is the third most vulnerable workforce in the nation due to disruption from automation and artificial intelligence.

While the endowment is providing $42.4 million, another $4 million is being contributed by the University of Notre Dame, according to John Affleck-Graves, executive vice president of Notre Dame and part of the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership.

Other investment from partners in the region already totals $170 million, according to Regina Emberton, president and CEO of the regional partnership.

Money over the next five years will be used to build the LIFT Network.

LIFT will have iNDustry Labs at Innovation Park at Notre Dame. Industry partners will be able to work with educators and researchers on next-generation manufacturing, data analytics, materials science and other factors. Other training centers will also be established at Ivy Tech Community College South Bend, Elkhart Area Career Center, Community Education Center in South Bend, Renaissance District Tech Training and Demonstration Center in South Bend, and the South Bend-Elkhart Technology Resource Center in Ignition Park.

The group enFocus, which has been utilizing local graduates to do research on civic projects, will begin working on the industry side, Emberton said.

Applied learning programs are expected in K-12 schools, as well as the colleges and universities throughout the region. Grants will also be offered to nonprofit organization and education providers to spur even more innovation.

Gary Neidig, president of Indiana Technology and Manufacturing Companies in Plymouth, told how his family’s company has grown and embraced innovation to go from being a traditional tool and die shop to doing software development for the blockchain. The region is poised to help other companies develop by using or developing technology.

“Education is the catalyst for the realization of those ideas,” he said.

Pete McCown, who with Affleck-Graves and others has been a leader of the regional efforts, said he is grateful to Lilly for the trust that led to the grant.

“Thank you,” he said, “for believing this region has a bright and promising future.”

To read the full news release and watch the announcement, go to https://liftgrant.com.