IEX: IE University’s own funding platform enabling cross-institutional and sector research collaborations

"IEX is really different. Go ask MIT how many research projects at other universities they finance. None. But, at IE University, we do, to break silos and truly change how collaboration happens", Ikhlaq Sidhu, Dean and Professor at IE School of Science & Technology in Madrid, told News Tank on 03/10/2025.

IEX, IE University’s collaborative funding platform, is designed to bridge the gaps between academia, industry and global institutions. The platform fosters partnerships among IE faculty and students and external researchers from leading universities such as Stanford, Berkeley, and Oxford, and industry partners. It aims to cultivate the intellectual diversity needed to generate new insights and drive innovation.

"IEX funds Impact Accelerator projects," says Ikhlaq Sidhu, who is also Founding Faculty Director and Chief Scientist of UC Berkeley’s Sutardja Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology (USA). "We’re doing those types of projects to break silos and achieve real-world impact. The days of research for the sake of research, just writing a publication, feel very old-world now.…