Purdue receives $25 million grant from Lilly Endowment

Supporting child care and transportation efforts, funding will help bolster economic development and quality of life efforts

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University has received a five-year, $25 million grant from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. through its statewide initiative, College and Community Collaboration. The grant will support highly collaborative efforts with community partners to improve early childhood education, child care and transportation access in a seven-county region.

The grant will partially fund investments in and training for local child care centers to provide high-quality services to an additional 500 children in the region, and increase the capacity and availability of early childhood education in Greater Lafayette, including the Purdue campus.

“On behalf of our neighbors and as Indiana’s land-grant university, we thank Lilly Endowment for initiating this program for the state and for choosing our proposal with this generous grant. It is an essential catalyst for transformative change in child care in Greater Lafayette and the nearby region,” President Mung Chiang said. “The availability of early childhood education will be critical to the university’s ability to recruit faculty and staff with young families and to the region’s continued economic growth and job creation. There is no sustainable excellence in ‘gown’ without a vibrant ‘town.’” 

The grant will also go toward efforts to improve access to various modes of transportation by supporting renovations at Purdue University Airport to enable commercial service; launch a series of van pools across the seven-county region, which will improve accessibility for workers; and invest in pedestrian safety and bike trail infrastructure, including the Wabash River Trail.

“This multifaceted approach to improve regional transportation will have wide-ranging benefits that improve the vibrancy of our community by boosting workforce development efforts,” Roberto Gallardo, Purdue vice president for engagement, said. “It will also enhance quality of life, which is essential to attracting and retaining talent.”

Purdue is one of six Indiana higher education institutions receiving implementation grants totaling $145.8 million through Lilly Endowment’s competitive initiative. Lilly Endowment anticipates making additional grants through the CCC initiative in 2024.

“In designing their proposed projects, it was evident that these colleges and universities engaged a wide-ranging group of community stakeholders to imagine and develop creative solutions to pressing campus and community needs,” said Jennett M. Hill, president of Lilly Endowment. “The institutions submitted proposals that revealed robust collaborative efforts reflective of the institutions’ willingness to learn from not only campus colleagues but from local residents and businesses to help shape projects with promising potential to enhance the quality of life on their campuses and in their local communities.”

Lilly Endowment launched College and Community Collaboration in early 2023. The initiative is designed to encourage Indiana’s colleges and universities to work closely with community stakeholders to envision and jointly undertake significant community development efforts to create more vibrant places in which to live, learn, work and play.

What other partners are saying:

“We were very appreciative to be part of the planning group that worked with Purdue to outline the needs of the Greater Lafayette region and pleased with the proposal that Purdue put forward. Thank you to Lilly Endowment for funding the proposal and we are looking forward to working together as a region with Purdue University.”

— Scott Walker, president and CEO, Greater Lafayette Commerce

“According to Early Learning Indiana, Carroll County ranks 91st out of 92 counties in childcare access and capacity. This investment will fundamentally change the childcare landscape in Carroll County. It will unquestionably reach the communities that need it the most.”

— Jacob Adams, executive director/CEO, Carroll County Economic Development Corp.

“The Covington Circle Trail Expansion Project and associated amenities will encourage economic development, celebrate local history and culture, attract tourists, and improve public health through active lifestyles and healthy habits, and foster a sense of community among our residents.”

— Dale White, chief executive officer, Western Indiana Community Foundation

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes, at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.

About Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based, private foundation created in 1937 by J. K. Lilly and his 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 its founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion, and it maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.

Writer/Media contact:  Wes Mills, wemills@purdue.edu