NSF IMPACT Engine in Indiana

Award ID: 2532359

The importance of this project is that nearly every American will experience a musculoskeletal (MSK) meaning muscle, bone, or joint injury or disease at some point in their life. These conditions are a leading cause of disability, missed work, and rising healthcare costs in the United States (U.S.). MSK problems also make it harder for people to stay active, remain in the workforce, and contribute to the economy. Despite their widespread impact, new ways to prevent, diagnose, treat, and manufacture solutions for MSK conditions have not kept up with growing clinical demand. At the same time, other countries are rapidly investing in biomedical research, advanced manufacturing, and artificial intelligence (AI). Together, these trends create an urgent need for coordinated U.S. efforts that strengthen domestic discovery, translation, advanced manufacturing, and workforce capacity. The goal of this project is to establish the NSF IMPACT Engine in Indiana, a coordinated regional network designed to speed up MSK innovation while supporting national health, economic strength, and U.S. leadership in biotechnology. Indiana has a unique concentration of MSKrelated strengths, including orthopedic and medical companies, drug development, diagnostic technologies, advanced manufacturing, universities, healthcare expertise, and largescale health data. Today, many of these resources operate separately, which slows collaboration and delays realworld impact. This project plans to connect these strengths into a shared, accessible innovation system that helps move ideas more quickly from research to practical solutions. These efforts aim to reduce the burden of MSK conditions and ensure U.S. leadership in biotechnology, AI, and manufacturing, while strengthening the economy in Indiana and beyond. In addition to advancing technology and bringing innovations to market, IMPACT aims to enhance education and workforce development. It will expand training and career opportunities linked to emerging fields such as biotechnology, AI, and advanced manufacturing. By creating clear pathways for students, workers, entrepreneurs, and community members, the project seeks to broaden participation in the MSK innovation economy. Through its combined focus on innovation, workforce development, and regionaltonational impact, the project supports national interests by advancing science, improving health and prosperity, and strengthening U.S. competitiveness in a critical area of healthcare innovation and manufacturing. The goals of this project are to establish a durable, stakeholderdriven musculoskeletal (MSK) innovation ecosystem that spans useinspired research and development, translation to practice, commercialization, and workforce development. The project will operate through an integrated Innovation Value Chain that connects ideation, prototyping, validation, regulatory planning, technology readiness level (TRL) advancement, product commercialization, market adoption, and workforce development. The project aims to deploy three useinspired R&D Studios Biomedical Engineering, Discovery, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address unmet MSK needs across TRLs. These studios will leverage multimodal data, including imaging, electronic health records, biospecimens, and outcomes data, to advance orthopedic devices, biologics, diagnostics, manufacturing processes, and AIenabled tools. Translation-to-Practice activities will provide coordinated regulatory, engineering, legal and business support to reduce risks, reduce costs, and shorten the time to market. Navigators and Project Development Teams will guide project selection, refinement, and progression, as well as mitigate technical and commercialization barriers early in development. In parallel, the project aims to implement a comprehensive workforce development program aligned with industry needs, spanning K12 STEM exposure, workbased learning for secondary students, advanced training for higher education learners, and upskilling for incumbent workers. Together, these integrated approaches aim to strengthen U.S. leadership in MSK and life sciences innovation, expand and strengthen a futureready and resilient workforce, and establish Indiana as a scalable national model for convergent biotechnology and manufacturing innovation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Michael Reksulak