Indiana University. Institute for Development Strategies

Established as the Regional Economic Development Institute in 1984, the Indiana University Institute for Development Strategies is a university-wide program that focuses on research to promote economic development, and in particular the links between globalization, entrepreneurship, and the strategic management of regions to promote economic development.

Directors of the Institute have included Charles Bonser, 1988-1997, and David Audretsch, appointed in 1998. Bonser also served as the first endowed Chair of the Ameritech Fellowship Program, which was established with a grant from the Ameritech Foundation. Research projects funded by this grant targeted major issues related to the new and emerging economies of mature economic regions with emphasis placed on the American Midwest.

In 1984, the Research and Graduate Development Office and the School for Public and Environmental Affairs established the Regional Economic Development Institute (REDI) “to foster a multidisciplinary dialogue on regional development among faculty, students and outside scholars and practitioners who have research and implementation interests in this topic from both the domestic and international perspectives” and for “applied research, training, intellectual exchange including conference organization and participation” (from the Application for Research Institute or Center Status). According to the Institute’s website, it is a university-wide research program pulling together faculty from various departments and campuses and matching them with outside research projects being undertaken in the United States and around the world. The Institute is particularly interested in “the links between globalization, entrepreneurship, and the strategic management of regions to promote economic development.”

In 1988, Charles Bonser became director of the Institute and changed the name from the Regional Economic Development Institute to the Institute for Development Strategies (IDS). For Bonser this name better fit the scope of the Institute’s work, since its work included economic development at local, regional, national, and international levels.

In 1992, Bonser was appointed as the first endowed Chair of the Ameritech Fellowship Program . The Ameritech Endowed Chair in Economic Development was a $1.2 million grant given to IU in 1992 by the Ameritech Foundation. Over five years, $500,000 was given by the Institute to support the research of 35 faculty members into issues related to economic development in economically mature regions, the main focus being on the economy of the American Midwest. Bonser served as chair until 1997, and continued as IDS director until 1998. In 1998, David Audretsch became the IDS director and the Chair of the Ameritech Fellowship Program, positions he still holds.