A conceptual rendering of the Heartland BioWorks headquarters at 16 Tech in Indianapolis. (Rendering Provided/Applied Research Institute)

This article was originally published by Inside Indiana Business. Click here to read the original article.

The Applied Research Institute in Bloomington plans to locate the headquarters for Heartland BioWorks at the 16 Tech Innovation District in downtown Indianapolis, the institute announced Monday.

Heartland BioWorks was designated as a federal technology hub by the U.S. Department of Commerce in October 2023 to support growth in biomanufacturing innovation and workforce development.

The two-story, 20,000-square-foot facility at 16 Tech is being designed to serve not only as the hub’s headquarters but also a workforce training and innovation center, ARI said.

The $24.3 million facility is being funded with $18.3 million from the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration, as well as $6 million investment from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co.

ARI said the headquarters will include state-of-the-art classroom, benchtop, and pilot-scale infrastructure to provide hands-on training and upskilling opportunities to grow the biomanufacturing workforce in Indiana.

“The Heartland BioWorks headquarters represents a national commitment to uniting human capital, research capabilities, and industrial capacity across the life sciences to secure America’s leadership in biotechnology and biomanufacturing,” ARI CEO Andrew Kossack said in a news release. “ARI is proud to lead this effort to ensure Indiana’s unique assets strengthen our nation’s competitive edge in this critical field.”

ARI plans to add a small number of jobs to operate the facility. However, officials plan to train more than 1,000 people in the facility by 2029 to support the biomanufacturing industry.

16 Tech CEO Emily Krueger told Inside INdiana Business that construction is expected to begin in early 2026, and ARI says the facility is expected to open in mid-2027.

Heartland BioWorks was selected in July 2024 to receive $51 million in federal CHIPS and Science Act funding to kick-start its workforce development and startup support initiatives.

“When I helped author and pass the CHIPS and Science Act, this is the kind of national impact I envisioned,” U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-IN, said in written remarks. “Heartland BioWorks is proving that the Midwest can lead the next generation of American innovation, by developing the talent, technology, and partnerships needed to secure our nation’s economic and biosciences future.”