APLU Names Winners of 2025 Innovation & Economic Prosperity Awards

Philadelphia, PA – The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) today named the winners of its 13th annual Innovation & Economic Prosperity (IEP) Awards. The awards recognize innovative projects or programs in economic engagement.

This year’s IEP University Award winners were recognized in the following categories:

• The University of California, Los Angeles won the IEP Talent Award, recognizing exemplary initiatives in education and workforce development.
   
• The University of Georgia won the IEP Place Award, recognizing exemplary initiatives resulting in social, cultural, or community development.
   
• The University of Maryland won the IEP Innovation Award, recognizing exemplary initiatives spurring innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology-based economic development.

• The University of Tennessee, Knoxville won the IEP Economic Engagement Connections Award, the top-prize in the awards competition, recognizing overall excellence and leveraging across all three award categories.

“Congratulations to our 2025 IEP Award winners,” said APLU President Waded Cruzado. “Public and land-grant universities are major drivers of innovation, workforce development, and community development, and we’re delighted to recognize institutions that have made major contributions in these areas.”

APLU’s IEP Universities designation program helps higher education institutions codify, elevate, and advance their enterprise supporting economic and community development while providing national recognition to institutions committed to university economic development. To earn the designation, institutions complete a rigorous self-study and stakeholder engagement process. They also identify their economic development strengths and areas of growth and improvement. Designees are then eligible to win awards that recognize exemplary and innovative case studies of economic engagement impact.

This year, APLU named University of Iowa, James Madison University, University of Nevada, Reno, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and Texas A&M University as Innovation and Economic Prosperity University Designees. More than ninety institutions have been named IEP Universities designees since the program was launched in 2013

More information on the winners’ economic engagement initiatives is below.

University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is opening doors to talent development across the state and region through continuing and professional education. To address a national shortage of skilled medical assistants, UCLA launched its Medical Assistant Program in 2017 as a joint program between UCLA Extension and its medical system, UCLA Health. The program provides a pathway for students to learn valuable skills and transition seamlessly into allied health careers by integrating rigorous academic coursework with real-world clinical experience.

Nearly 200 students have completed the program since it launched, with 100 percent of graduates passing the National Certified Medical Assistant exam. The university also launched UCLAxCareerBridge, a program to prepare adult learners for in-demand careers in early childhood education, data science, and substance use disorder counseling. The program, launched by UCLA Extension in 2020, uses state funding to remove the financial barriers of tuition and books, while providing additional supportive services such as a dedicated student success coach. Each certificate program covers a specialized field and provides the educational background needed to attain employment and career pathways for advancement. 

University of Georgia
With a commitment to statewide impact, the University of Georgia (UGA) is empowering local communities through collaborations that support economic and community development. In 2013, UGA launched the Renaissance Strategic Visioning and Planning Program to help Georgia communities revitalize their downtowns through public engagement, design-based planning, and implementation support. Each plan is shaped through collaboration with UGA faculty and staff who work directly with local governments, residents, and community stakeholders to develop roadmaps for revitalization.

Twenty-five towns have completed plans through the program, generating over $500 million in public and private investment across Georgia. Results include parks, housing, civic spaces, infrastructure, and development reflecting local needs. Further supporting communities across the state, UGA’s Archway Partnership embeds faculty in select communities to connect experiential learning opportunities for students in support of locally identified needs. Over 100 projects were completed last year, ranging from murals to healthcare and housing. UGA’s Community Branding Program helps local governments tell their stories, promote local assets, and boost economic development. The branding process follows a three-step approach grounded in research, public input, design, and implementation. It begins by gathering stories, and aspirations through listening sessions and surveys. To date, the program has partnered with 16 communities. 

University of Maryland 
The University of Maryland (UMD) is advancing the innovation landscape in two key areas: community and quantum. UMD leads the statewide Maryland Innovation Extension effort to expand access to entrepreneurial training and resources by partnering with HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions, including Bowie State, Morgan State, Coppin State, and the University of Baltimore. The program provides: I-Corps Customer Discovery Short Courses to provide training in lean startup methodology and customer validation; startup fundamentals workshops; and entrepreneurs-in-residence, as well as experienced startup founders who mentor faculty, staff, and students.

The program has helped create new ventures, hosted hundreds of workshops, and developed a stronger, more interconnected statewide innovation infrastructure. Drawing on its longstanding leadership in quantum computing, UMD helped launch the Mid-Atlantic Quantum Alliance (MQA), a coalition of academic, small businesses, industry leaders, nonprofit, and government partners dedicated to supporting quantum innovation and talent development in the region. UMD’s Discovery District will be the home of a new quantum benchmarking hub supported by up to $100 million in matching funds from both the state and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. More than a dozen quantum companies have been selected to participate and UMD’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS) will serve as a major partner in the initiative.   

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville   
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville has promoted innovation and regional development and addressed pressing challenges facing the state. UTK’s Research Park combines the university’s resources with partnerships with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other institutions to advance research and economic impact; the Park hosts 15 industry partners and 800 employees adjacent to the main university campus. The research park also hosts Spark Innovation Center – which supports, attracts, and retains the nation’s most promising technology startups by providing access to top-quality lab space, mentoring, prototyping resources, and sources of early-stage capital.

The center has served 50 companies that have collectively created 196 jobs and raised $138 million. Seventy-seven percent of startups served continue to have an active presence in East Tennessee in 2025. UTK has also rallied researchers to address community challenges. Faculty and students from a variety of disciplines worked together to design and build a bridge equipped with fiber-reinforced polymer and fiber optic sensors to monitor stresses. An engineering team created InnoCrate to introduce fibers and composites to K-12 students and address workforce needs, and faculty and students from seven UTK colleges have contributed to the Tennessee RiverLine, a 1.2-million-acre system along the Tennessee River.