The Research Park includes 100+ companies on campus, including both corporate research and tech operations and startups alike. The Research Park has 1,700+ employees working in the tech community of employers. The 200 acre development is located on the University of Illinois campus at Urbana-Champaign. It has been developed as a public-private partnership with private construction on university land with ground lease agreements and a public/private board established by the University of Illinois for its governance.
EnterpriseWorks, the Research Park’s 43,000-square-foot business incubator for early-stage tech firms, is operated by the University of Illinois to help launch successful startup companies. It was funded with $8 million in state funding in 2003 and has launched more than 250 startup companies since opening. The startup companies that have incubated at EnterpriseWorks have raised more than $900 Million in venture capital investments and are awarded 30% of all the SBIR/STTR federal small business research grants in the state of Illinois annually. 58% of companies have been started by University of Illinois faculty; 20% by UI students or recent alumni; 11% by others; 9% by UI staff. EnterpriseWorks includes 24 wet labs, offices, and event space for the Research Park tech community. The Research Park continuously plans and hosts technology and entrepreneurship events and recruiting activities. EnterpriseWorks manages an Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program, the I-Start program to provide seed funding, NSF I-Corps Site at the University of Illinois, and AWARE program for female and minority entrepreneurs. EnterpriseWorks also manages a new EDA funded Illinois University Incubator Network and small business technical assistance program for startups in downstate Illinois.
Corporations have sought out Champaign and the University of Illinois to address recruitment needs to attracting high-quality technical talent, both students coming out of the university as well as tapping into the experienced talent pool of engineers that live and work in our community. Students work year-round in the Research Park, typically 10-20 hours a week during the school year and full-time in the summer. Most companies also are seeking research collaboration with the University of Illinois and access to our leading faculty in areas of mutual interest. The campus location encourages dialogue with departments and creates more visibility access for the company to the University. Large corporate centers in the Research Park include: ADM Sustainable Bioenergy Modeling Center, Caterpillar Simulation Center & Data Innovation Lab, CME Group, John Deere Technology Innovation Center, Dow Agrosciences, Forcepoint (Raytheon), State Farm Research and Development Center, Yahoo, Syngenta Digital Innovation Lab, Capital One Digital Campus Lab, Huawei, Abbott Laboratories, Littelfuse, Riverbed, Ameren Innovation Center, Anheuser-Busch InBev Bud Analytics Lab, Foxconn Interconnect, Abbvie Innovation Center, Grainger, NVIDIA, CEB, AARP Tech Nest, and Graybar.
