INDIANAPOLIS (September 4, 2019) – The Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) was formed in 1999 and today, 20 years later, it is celebrating the many milestones that have been achieved by strategically bringing together the chief executives of Central Indiana’s prominent corporations, private foundations and universities to positively impact the economy, workforce and quality of life in Central Indiana.

In the 1980s and 1990s, one significant growth strategy in Indianapolis was the promotion of the city as an amateur athletics center. The move of the NCAA headquarters to Indianapolis in 1999 was a major outcome of this strategy and a huge win for the region. After this accomplishment was achieved, a task force of community leaders was convened by the Corporate Community Council to determine how to build on this success by enhancing and broadening the region’s community and economic development strategy. CICP was formed as a result, and in collaboration with Battelle, it released an ambitious blueprint for economic development in Central Indiana that has resulted in the formation of six talent and industry sector initiatives and a number of key projects that are focused on growing a 21st century advanced industries economy.

In addition to these six initiatives, CICP has been instrumental in working with community leaders to launch a number of projects to help advance certain strategies important to our regional economy. A few examples include: a placemaking strategy that led to the creation of the 16 Tech Innovation District; a broader life sciences strategy that resulted in the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute; a strategy to provide direct pathways to energy technology commercialization with the Battery Innovation Center in Greene County; and a targeted strategy that helped form the Indiana Innovation Institute. Underlying each of them is a broader talent attraction, retention and development strategy for the region.

Last year, the organization was featured in The New Localism – How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism by Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak, who said that via CICP, “Indianapolis is the leading U.S. example of networked governance.” Also, in 2018, Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program released a report, Rethinking Cluster Initiatives, calling CICP “one of the most impactful business and civic leadership groups in the nation.”

“Forethought, collaboration and hard work by our employees, our business and civic leaders, our philanthropic community and our academic institutions has created a foundation of prosperity for the Central Indiana region that is also reaching to other regions across the state,” said David L. Johnson, president and CEO of CICP. “CICP is unique and special – in our structure, the quality of our board membership, the strength of our diverse sources of financial support, and the energy behind our many collaborations and essential projects. CICP truly is providing both the workshop to develop and then the runway to launch the best collaborative opportunities for our region’s future success. And our best opportunities lie ahead. We look forward to another 20 years of promise and progress.”

As the organization continues its impact, CICP with funding from Lilly Endowment is embarking on an ambitious multi-dimensional project: a study of Indiana’s economy designed to focus business priorities, inform public policymakers and spur intentional growth across the entire state of Indiana.

The Indiana Bellwether Study will be conducted during the next 18 months by the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program and the American Enterprise Institute, a collaborative team of undisputed national experts. The study will synthesize past research and present insights, provide fresh analysis and offer actional recommendations for inclusive progress on a statewide scale. Once the study is completed, CICP and its partners will share the findings broadly and geographically by engaging leaders from all sectors across the state.

Lilly Endowment’s support of the Indiana Bellwether Study is the most recent in a list of grants the Endowment has provided to support CICP efforts. Since CICP’s founding in 1999, the Endowment has made grants totaling $125 million to the CICP Foundation to help fund the charitable and educational aspects of CICP’s operations and initiatives.

“Lilly Endowment is pleased to support the Indiana Bellwether Study and to have helped advance CICP’s important work over the past 20 years,” said N. Clay Robbins, the Endowment’s chairman, president and CEO. “The research and analysis that have undergirded CICP’s projects and initiatives from its beginning – along with the engagement and leadership of its members and the boards of its initiatives – have given us confidence that the Endowment’s funding will be used strategically and effectively. Given this complex and fast-changing world we live in, CICP and its member organizations going forward will be needed more than ever to imagine and execute strategies to build the prosperity of our region and state.”

About Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP)

The Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) was formed in 1999 to bring together the chief executives of Central Indiana’s prominent corporations, foundations and universities in a strategic and collaborative effort dedicated to the region’s continued prosperity and growth. To advance this mission, CICP sponsors six key talent and industry sector initiatives, AgriNovus Indiana, Ascend Indiana, BioCrossroads, Conexus Indiana, Energy Systems Network and TechPoint, each of which addresses challenges and opportunities unique to its respective area: agbiosciences, talent and workforce development, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and logistics, energy technology and technology. To learn more about CICP, visit www.cicpindiana.com.

About Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family — J.K. Lilly Sr. and sons Eli and J.K. Jr. — through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.