Innovation and Economic Prosperity designation

As the first public land-grant institution, K-State is a member of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, or APLU. The Commission on Innovation, Competiveness, and Economic Prosperity, known as CICEP, created the Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Designation and Awards program to recognize universities that are leaders in spurring and promoting regional economic development. CICEP also offers an Economic Engagement Framework to help universities plan, implement, assess, and advance economic engagement efforts.

Ninety-one institutions have received the IEP designation. K-State began the IEP designation process in August 2016, and received notification that the submission was successful in July 2017.

K-State was again recognized for its dedication to innovation, economic development, and community engagement by earning a five-year extension in 2024. To secure the extension, the university collected economic engagement data and reported on institutional progress during the last five years. This process included engaging a range of internal and external stakeholders to understand changes in the ecosystem, collect progress data and identify future growth opportunities.

In addition to the designation, K-State has been named the winner of multiple Innovation and Economic Prosperity University Awards of Excellence, including the Innovation Award in 2017 and the Place Award in 2023.

Read more about the process K-State followed (PDF) or view members of the steering committee.

Benefits

The designation self-study process benefits K-State because it:

• Challenges K-State to define economic engagement.
• Offers an opportunity for internal and external stakeholders to identify what K-State does well and how and where K-State can improve.
• Provides a means for K-State to communicate all of the ways it is economically engaged locally, regionally, at the state level, and nationally.
• Affords an opportunity to catalog all of the programs, activities, and events related to economic engagement/development.

The Office of the Vice President for Research will continue to engage internal and external stakeholders as the growth plan is implemented.

Learn more

• Read a press release about the Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Designation awarded to Kansas State University.
• Read our IPE proposal (PDF)
• Read a press release about K-State’s five-year extension of the designation.

Questions or comments

Contact:

Beth Montelone
Senior associate vice president for research
bethmont@k-state.edu