Indiana Moves Toward Nuclear Base Load as Life Sciences Expansion Tightens Central Indiana's Labor Market

Indiana Explores Small Modular Reactors for Industrial Base Load at the LEAP District

Governor Braun signed a non-binding letter of intent with Eli Lilly and Indiana's Office of Energy Development to evaluate deploying small modular nuclear reactors and other advanced nuclear technologies at the LEAP Research and Innovation District in Lebanon, Boone County, where Eli Lilly has announced more than $13 billion in investment across multiple drug manufacturing facilities. This is not a medical isotope play. The stated purpose is base load power for industrial, research, and community use.

The agreement puts Indiana's Office of Energy Development on point for policy, permitting, and grid siting coordination. Eli Lilly's role is to evaluate technologies, provide input on energy demand, and engage in long-term procurement discussions. Grid interconnection, infrastructure costs, scheduling, and project risks are all on the assessment list.

Indiana currently has no commercial nuclear plants, but this is not its first move in that direction. In November, the state partnered with reactor startup First American Nuclear, which plans to site its headquarters, manufacturing facilities, and a power plant in Indiana. On April 15th, First American Nuclear submitted its regulatory engagement plan for its Eagle One small fast spectrum reactor to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Watch for: updates from the Indiana Office of Energy Development on grid siting and interconnection assessments. Those documents will tell you how seriously this is moving and what the cost and timeline picture actually looks like.

Incog BioPharma's $200M Fishers Expansion Will Pull Nearly 1,000 Workers from Central Indiana's Labor Market by 2030

Incog BioPharma, a sterile injectables contract development and manufacturing organization, is investing approximately $200 million to expand its Fishers campus to roughly 300,000 square feet on a 21-acre site. Construction begins in early 2026. By 2030, the company expects to employ nearly 1,000 people there across operations, engineering, quality, and administration. This is Incog's third expansion at this location. Mayor Scott Fadness noted life sciences firms have now committed more than $1 billion in total investment to the city.

For any manufacturer competing for skilled workers in Hamilton County, those roles will hit the same labor pool your operation draws from, and they'll be recruiting aggressively through the end of this decade.

Watch for: Incog's hiring timeline and which roles they recruit for most aggressively through 2027. Those job categories will tell you exactly which skill sets are becoming most competitive in Hamilton County's labor market over the next four years.

Former Governor Holcomb: Power Supply and Skilled Workers Still Determine Who Wins

Former Governor Eric Holcomb published a piece in Time magazine in January 2026 arguing that AI will drive an American manufacturing renaissance. The two variables he says determine whether Indiana captures or misses that opportunity: the supply of skilled workers and electrical power, in that order. His framework cites a Deloitte projection of 3.8 million net new US manufacturing jobs by 2033 driven by AI, with data centers and associated information processing already accounting for 92% of US economic growth in the first half of 2025, per Harvard economist Jason Furman.

His workforce position: AI and digital skills training needs to begin at the secondary school level, with community colleges and vocational-technical schools as the backbone. His concern on power: whether Indiana's energy infrastructure investment keeps pace with the industrial load growth AI-driven manufacturing will place on the grid.

Watch for: state and federal workforce policy developments that create or close skill pipelines for Indiana manufacturers, and whether the state's energy infrastructure investment tracks the load growth that's coming.