Fifth-Year Progress Report
Reinvigorate the Wisconsin Idea and renew our commitment to our public mission
- A new trans-disciplinary research institute within the College of Engineering — the Grainger Institute for Engineering — was announced in June. Funded with a $25 million commitment from The Grainger Foundation, the institute is intended to foster new discoveries and build the university’s reputation as a leader in helping to solve critical technological challenges. The commitment will create an endowment for professorships, faculty scholar awards, and postdoctoral fellowships, with additional support from UW–Madison, the UW–Madison Vilas Trust, and the college.
- Thanks to a grant, the Dairyland Initiative, a School of Veterinary Medicine outreach program, is making its web-based resources available free to dairy farmers across the country. Farmers can find a wealth of information needed to create facilities that lead to a reduction in injuries and diseases and often increase milk production.
- U.S. News & World Report ranked UW–Madison third among schools offering high-quality online graduate engineering programs.
- To better address the nursing faculty shortage, the School of Nursing is one of four UW System schools offering new fellowship and loan forgiveness programs to encourage nurses to pursue doctoral degrees or postdoctoral training and assume nurse educator positions in Wisconsin. The current shortage in nurse educators limits the number of students who can be accepted into nursing programs. The state could see a shortage of 20,000 nurses by 2035.
- UW–Madison returned to its long-held position as the nation’s top producer of current Peace Corps volunteers, with 90 alumni serving overseas. Since the agency was created in 1961, a total of 3,112 UW alumni have served abroad.
- The university’s Office of Corporate Relations, established in 2003 to serve as the university’s liaison to business and industry, hosted a number of special events this year, including a second annual Corporate Open House in August, which allowed UW–Madison schools and colleges to expand and strengthen relationships with corporate partners.
- Forbes Magazine in November cited University Research Park and the MG&E Innovation Center on its campus as among the top breeding grounds for compelling high-tech start-up companies. The 260-acre park on the city’s west side is home to 126 companies and 3,600 employees, and has long been considered a national model for high-tech jobs with strong links to university research. A second 370-acre park is under development west of the Beltline.
- The Office of Industrial Partnerships, established in 2012, works with companies whose interests range from access to cutting-edge basic research to technology commercialization. The office provides a central point of contact for these companies, as well as review of the contracts that go on to support and advance the interests of the UW–Madison campus and its researchers. During the last year, it completed 1,237 contracts, with a financial value to the university of more than $27 million.
Discovery to Product, or D2P, a program to support entrepreneurship and encourage new start-ups among faculty, staff, and students, was launched in the fall. D2P will help the UW expand its role as a major partner to the state and the region in moving innovative ideas into the marketplace. The university and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation each committed $1.6 million in initial funding. A UW System economic development grant awarded $2.4 million to UW–Madison to support innovations that can be commercial-ready by May 2015. A new director, mentors-inresidence, advisory board members, and partners are bringing industry experience in early-stage companies to help build D2P’s success.
Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Projects
- A program to provide peer-supported learning and digital literacy for court-involved teens.
- A project that will connect students with artisans in Ecuador, Mexico, and Kenya who need help with microenterprise development.
- A community-based effort to educate Wisconsin consumers on the effective selection and use of health insurance.
- A media project that will teach digital storytelling and technology skills to tribal teens to address health disparities.
- A project that will pair UW archeologists with residents of a small Wisconsin village to unearth remnants of a 1,000-year-old religious mission site.
- A series of writing workshops at libraries and community centers to help participants secure employment.
- An effort to distribute teaching tools and resources about Wisconsin’s American Indian tribes to the state’s school districts.
- A project to increase school-based and other educational support for young homeless children in the Madison school district.
Supporting charts
Note: If you are unable to read the charts below, please contact the Office of Quality Improvement. Staff there will help explain the content of any chart in this progress report.
Selected Morgridge Center Partnership Program Types
