Advancing a New Era of Purdue Innovation
A message from EVPRP Theresa Mayer
Through our support of faculty and students in their quest for discovery and innovation, through our investments in state-of-the-art research facilities, and through our pursuit of public and private partnerships, Purdue University is transforming the role a 21st-century research institution plays in our global society.
This annual research report chronicles our research accomplishments and global impact over the 2018-19 fiscal year while also laying our course for the future.
In 2018, we broke ground on the Discovery Park District to extend the vitality of Purdue’s innovation environment. The district is designed as a research, business and social community. Located in the heart of the district, the Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration already brings together our key technology transfer and entrepreneurial activities under one roof and serves as the front door for business partners to collaborate with our faculty and students.
Having a new, dedicated space for these activities is testament to Purdue’s technology and commercialization enterprise. In 2019, The Wall Street Journal listed Purdue as third-best in the U.S. and sixth-best globally in an article highlighting startups generated from university-licensed technologies over the previous 12 months. Some of the latest innovations are featured in this annual report, as are some of our groundbreaking, fundamental discoveries.
In 2018-19 as well, we observed the University’s sesquicentennial, celebrating 150 Years of Giant Leaps while steering the conversations about the future toward the major research challenges of our time — security, health, sustainability and space. For an exclamation point on the celebration, we marked a third consecutive year of record-setting efforts, reaching $672 million in research expenditures. With faculty, students and staff working together, we are poised for even greater advancements in our persistent pursuit of innovation and world-changing discoveries.
We are growing our investments in state-of-the-art laboratories and research cores. We are advancing efforts to secure important public and private partnerships for deeper research engagement. Together, we’re charting new territory — with a commitment to impactful research that addresses the major challenges of today and anticipates the solutions for tomorrow.
We hope you’ll follow along on our journey.
Theresa Mayer
Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships