Chicago's UI Labs

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UI Labs was a 2013–2019 public-private innovation institute in Chicago that piloted new collaborative models for digital manufacturing and urban technology.
What are the main aims and objectives?

UI Labs aimed to drive economic development and innovation through large-scale collaboration across universities, industry, and government, with a focus on digital manufacturing and urban infrastructure. Its core goals were to accelerate technology transfer from research to market, foster a skilled digital workforce, and position Chicago as a global leader in both advanced manufacturing and civic tech. Addressing gaps in industry-academic commercialisation, UI Labs also sought to transform traditional sectors by leveraging advanced technologies for broadly shared prosperity.

How does the program work?

UI Labs operated as a nonprofit "lab of labs" structured around high-profile collaborative partnerships. It maintained two primary initiatives: the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII, later MxD) and City Digital (later City Tech). These programs housed research, demonstration, and commercialization projects under one roof at a 94,000-square-foot centre on Chicago’s Goose Island.​

UI Labs formed multi-sector consortia, ultimately engaging more than 300 partners from industry, academia, government, and the civic sector. Projects typically started with a challenge proposed by an industry or municipal partner, to which UI Labs assembled cross-disciplinary teams from among its members. These teams then developed, piloted, and demonstrated technologies before scaling them outside the lab. Notable examples included digital twin projects for manufacturers, advanced supply chain tools, and smart city pilots such as underground infrastructure mapping and water management innovation for the City of Chicago.​

The organisation’s membership model required partners to provide cash or in-kind contributions, thus leveraging federal and state grants with private-sector resources. DMDII/MxD, for example, required cost-matching from industry for government grants—a mechanism designed to ensure projects solved genuine problems and could be commercialized at market scale. City Digital pilots took a similar approach with city agencies and tech companies.​

UI Labs’ core value-add was to provide 1) a neutral, cutting-edge facility to de-risk emerging technologies, 2) an environment fostering multi-sector collaboration, 3) demonstration-scale projects to accelerate commercial adoption, and 4) workforce upskilling and development. Regular workshops, training sessions, and events reached over 12,000 visitors in 2017 alone. By 2019, both the manufacturing and urban innovation labs had matured enough to function independently, marking a successful exit from the umbrella structure.

What is the overall cost?

UI Labs received an initial $70 million (USD) grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to create DMDII (about €65 million), plus an additional $10 million (USD) in other federal funding. The State of Illinois contributed $16 million (USD), and the City of Chicago $10 million (USD). Private-sector and academic partners pledged more than $250 million (USD), bringing the total public-private investment in DMDII to approximately $320 million (USD) (about €295 million). City Digital received a separate $500,000 (USD) federal grant. By 2016, annual operational revenues for UI Labs reached $17.6 million (USD). Membership fees from corporate partners (typically $200k–$400k/yr) and in-kind equipment (up to $6 million) supplemented this funding.

How was it implemented?

Originating in 2012–2013 as an initiative led by the University of Illinois system through Vice President Lawrence Schook, UI Labs was positioned as a state and city economic development priority, winning financial and logistical support from Governor Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Following incorporation as a nonprofit in 2013, UI Labs marshaled a successful federal bid to create DMDII under the Obama Administration’s national manufacturing program. Federal award was announced in February 2014, and the Goose Island facility selected the same year.​​

Planning, fundraising, and site development took place through state, city, and university collaboration. UI Labs opened its headquarters in May 2015 with Caralynn Nowinski Collens as founding CEO. Staffing grew to about 50 within two years, with significant upskilling and technical recruitment in digital manufacturing and IoT.

Key milestones included:

  • 2012–13: Concept and business plan development
  • Late 2013: Incorporation and university/state funding secured​
  • Feb 2014: Federal grant awarded; major announcement at White House​
  • May 2015: Facility officially opened​
  • 2015–16: City Digital pilot projects launched in urban tech​
  • 2019: DMDII and City Digital spun out as independent operations, closing the original UI Labs umbrella​

Key implementation partners included top-tier manufacturers (e.g., Boeing, Caterpillar, Siemens), world-class universities, civic actors, and technology providers.​

What impact has been measured?

UI Labs became one of the most substantial public-private innovation hubs in the U.S., growing its membership and partnership base to over 320 organizations and catalyzing more than 60 manufacturing and civic technology projects with $95 million invested through 2017. DMDII/MxD supported digital transformation for hundreds of manufacturing businesses, including small and medium-sized firms. Several pilot technologies for smart cities were deployed at scale, such as advanced water management sensors and digital mapping for underground utilities—leading to reported efficiencies and risk reductions for city contractors.​

Evidence of direct economic impact includes 80–100 new jobs in the initial phase, $415 million in public-private investments for MxD projects by 2025, and renewal of federal grants in 2019 and 2024 based on merit reviews. The successful spinout of both DMDII (as MxD) and City Digital (as City Tech) represented proof-of-concept for the “lab of labs” model.

Notes + Additional Context

About tools for ecosystem coordination (excerpt from Nesta's ‘Idea Bank’ for Local Policymakers):

A slightly different notion to cluster development is ecosystem coordination. Even if there is not a specific digital cluster, many cities are actively facilitating or federating their ecosystem by creating bodies that link the activities of the organisations concerned – such as universities, funding bodies, incubators, accelerators, co-working spaces, service providers (like legal, financial services etc.) and large corporations. This helps the city to take a structured and longterm approach to developing digital entrepreneurship. Such bodies can also help investors, customers and other partners to navigate the seemingly-chaotic and rapidly-changing startup environment of a city.

CURATED BY

Siddharth Bannerjee

Researcher, Digital Startups
Nesta
United Kingdom