ROCKFORD (WIFR) — It’s been 20 years since Northern Illinois University began welcoming hundreds of thousands of students and community members to their Rockford campus for classes, meetings, gatherings, and special events. As part of the celebration, the university is launching the NIU EIGERlab co-working space.
EIGERlab is a Rockford business accelerator, acquired by NIU from the Rockford Area Development Council last year.
The NIU EIGERlab serves the region with business acceleration and product development services.
Now, businesses and community members can use the space at the NIU-Rockford facility on East State Street.
Entrepreneurs will be able to access coaching, ask mentors questions, and get the resources necessary to expand their ideas.
President of NIU, Douglas Baker, says, “The EIGERlab is really an innovation center that will help entrepreneurs start their businesses from idea, all the way to actually running the business. So we provide both equipment, as well as the mentoring for both the technical and business side.”
“Whether we talk about sewing machines in the early days or fasteners, or aerospace, Rockford has always been a manufacturing community that has reinvented itself, explains Dan Cataldi, the Executive Director of NIU EIGERlab. “This hub is going to continue to allow us to be on the leading edge of innovation for physical and digital products.”
The co-working space is located at the NIU-Rockford facility on East State St. The NIU EIGERlab Center for Product Development is on Zenith Parkway in Loves Park. That’s where the manufacturing machines and 3-D printing technologies are located. Click here to view WIFR’s coverage.