All Services Partnership Agreements and IU LAB

Principles and Processes for Select “All Services” Industry Partnerships in Life/ Biosciences and the Role of IU Launch Accelerator for Biosciences (IU LAB)

Introduction and Vision

Consistent with IU’s unprecedented $250 million commitment in October 2023, Indiana University is committed to fostering a vibrant ecosystem of innovation and industry collaboration and enhancing IU’s leadership role in the life/biosciences area.

IU LAB, announced in December 2024 with a $138 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., is a transformational extension of this commitment. When announced, IU LAB was put forward as IU’s “gateway” to “facilitate critical academic-industry partnerships” in life and biosciences, sending a clear signal of IU’s readiness and commitment to be the best partner to industry and breaking down or eliminating prior and current barriers to engaging with IU. IU, through IU LAB, has a tremendous opportunity to expand industry engagement through highly coordinated comprehensive services (referred to as “All Services”) across the entire University including research, research services, credentialing, talent and workforce development, consulting, etc.

These investments are already paying huge dividends, including the announcements of major All Services Partnership Agreements with Cook Medical and Eli Lilly & Company, as well as several more to be announced in early 2026. The agreements signed to date designate IU LAB as the administrative and contractual lead for IU, creating a single ‘front door’ to facilitate long-term partnerships with industry partners, through which many different tasks (or projects) will flow over an extended period. The goal is to support successful long-term partnerships at the highest organization-to-organization level.

Without question, faculty leaders and innovators in many different departments, schools and centers/institutes will be absolutely key in both identifying opportunities and successfully executing funded tasks that will flow through these Agreements.

The next part of this memo outlines Core Principles and Processes that will be used to successfully execute existing All Services Partnership Agreements where IU LAB is named the administrative and contractual lead for IU.

Core Principles and Processes of the Industry Partnerships Managed by IU LAB

These core principles and processes apply only to those existing All Services Partnership Agreements in which IU LAB is named the administrative and contractual lead for IU.

Agreements in which IU LAB is named the administrative and contractual lead for IU.

  1. For these existing All Services Partnership Agreements, IU LAB will serve as IU’s programmatic point of contact and administrative lead and oversee the implementation of these Agreements and corresponding tasks. IU LAB will work collaboratively with various IU Research units, including the Office for Research and Administration and the Innovation and Commercialization Office, to develop, negotiate and sign these Agreements.
  2. As industry partners identify potential tasks to flow through an Agreement, IU LAB will reach out to relevant IU faculty, academic units and centers/institutes with an invitation to participate. In some cases, IU LAB will use a formal request for proposal (RFP) model. This does not preclude faculty from also approaching IU LAB to discuss opportunities.
  3. Various tasks (or projects) will flow through these Agreements, in which the participation, leadership and subject matter expertise of IU faculty and key personnel are vital to successful execution. It is anticipated that some tasks will require more resources from the faculty lead’s home unit(s) while other tasks will require more resources from IU LAB.
  4. The faculty lead(s) will work collaboratively with IU LAB to develop an agreed scope of work and necessary budget to successfully execute the task(s). During this process, IU LAB will be the primary point-of-contact with the industry partner. IU LAB will remain in close coordination with the faculty lead(s), facilitating discussions as necessary to best position IU to develop a successful partnership. All communication with the external partner should be coordinated through IU LAB, including, as necessary, other academic units and university administrative representatives.

  5. Although IU LAB is not officially designated as a centrally administered center/institute (CIMS) because it reports to the IU President and not IU Research, IU LAB will function like a CIMS. Therefore, the associated guiding principles and indirect cost allocation formula for CIMS described at the link below apply:

    Source: Indirect Cost Recovery (ICR) Allocation Formula for IU’s Centrally Administered Centers, Institutes, Museums and Service Centers (CIMS)

    Importantly, the CIMS allocation formula will provide the framework for developing budgets for various tasks that will flow through these Agreements. Other weighting factors will be considered for each task including: i) the resources necessary to successfully execute the agreed scope of work for the task(s); ii) the administrative lead and their roles and responsibilities; iii) where the work will be done; iv) who will perform the work; and v) other capital and human resource investments contributed to the Partnership or related task(s). However, the highest weighting will be to the direct resources necessary to successfully execute the agreed scope of work for the defined task(s).

  6. IU LAB and the faculty lead(s), including their home academic unit(s), will agree to a scope of work and corresponding budget necessary to successfully execute the task(s) with the guiding principle to create a ‘win’ scenario for all internal stakeholders and the industry partner. This agreement will be effectuated through the KC (Kuali Coeus) Proposal Development Document. In the document, IU LAB must be designated as the lead unit. The faculty lead(s) home unit will be automatically included in the routing hierarchy for review and approval.
  7. Once a finalized task is agreed to by the industry partner, a prime account will be set up with IU LAB as the lead unit to fund the task in full. As necessary, the faculty lead(s) and/or their designee will be granted access to the prime account to manage their agreed scope of work and corresponding budget. As necessary, secondary accounts in the faculty leader’s home academic department or center/institute will be set up with agreed and corresponding budget transfer to the secondary account(s). As indicated above, all indirect cost revenues from primary and secondary accounts will flow to IU LAB for distribution in accordance with the final agreed allocation formula for the task.
  8. Consistent with this CIMS guiding principle, to the fullest extent possible under current cost-accounting standards, IU LAB (and IU Research) will attribute both award credit and R&D expenditure credit back to the academic unit or center/institute where the named faculty lead(s) has their primary affiliation.
  9. Any faculty who engage with IU LAB in an All Services Partnership Agreement acknowledges and agrees to the terms and conditions of this memo and agrees that no other verbal or written agreement will be substituted or used in addition to the terms and conditions set forth in this memo.
  10. The IU Vice President for Research reserves the right to modify the terms and conditions set forth in this memo and has the right and authority to make final determinations in the event of disagreements between IU LAB and its partners.

For all other industries/companies, faculty/units are encouraged to develop collaborations that advance our mission of student success, research, and service.

If you have questions, please complete the very brief Research Development Services inquiry form or email the Office for Research Development at ord@iu.edu.