IU launches Academic Accelerator

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — Indiana University has launched a program designed to promote the development of new high-tech ventures. The university says the Academic Accelerator, or A2, initiative is the result of a partnership with the National Security Innovation Network and Maryland-based research and technology commercialization company Eccalon.

IU says the program will support promising applied research projects that will lead to real-world applications in both commercial and defense settings. It will also leverage the university’s commercialization resources and connect IU researchers to potential end users.

The A2 program, the university says, will allow multidisciplinary teams at IU to advance new technologies that are vital to the country’s national security interests. It is anticipated that new businesses will be created as a result.

“IU’s leading role in research related to national security and defense technologies has grown substantially in recent years,” said Jeffrey Zaleski, primary investigator for the A2 program and interim vice provost for research at IU. “This new agreement specifically leverages the university’s strengths in high-performance computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as areas of quantum information science.”

The National Security Innovation Network is a program within the U.S. Department of Defense designed to generate and accelerate new solutions to national security challenges.