A report released this week ranks the University of Wisconsin in the top 12 among all national universities seeking to enhance the state’s economy through technology transfer and the development of companies created through university research.
The report, issued by the Southern Growth Policies Board and funded by the National Science Foundation, assesses the role of American universities in regional and state economic growth.
UW-Madison is referred to in the report as, “a story of an extraordinarily successful research university that has also nurtured a long-standing mission of service to its state, while at the same time creating a very entrepreneurial culture and some novel approaches to technology transfer.”
The report, dubbed “Innovation U,” stated that in the past 15 years some American universities have transformed to become partners with state and regional economies.
The rankings are based on 10 different activities, including entrepreneurial development, technology transfer, career services and placement and industry research partnerships.
UW Chancellor John Wiley said the report shows the importance of Madison’s long history of technology transfer.
“Technology transfer and faculty entrepreneurship are avenues for us to make research accessible to the larger world, ” Wiley said. “The payoff is new products and new sources of high-paying jobs.”
Martin Cadwallader, UW-Madison graduate school dean, said the study confirms that UW research is a key influence on the state’s budget.
“This study demonstrates a very important return to taxpayers as a result of their investment in public higher education,” Cadwallader said. “It recognizes and documents the roles we play in growing Wisconsin’s economy.”
Universities were selected through a nomination process identifying schools that address regional economic development, regional economics and organizational innovation.
The panel cited Madison’s century-old tradition of community service as instrumental to the university’s success. It also cites the Office of University-Industry Relations, University Research Park and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation as beneficial to the state’s economy.
Madison’s ranking is the result of years of efforts by faculty researchers and campus leaders, Steven Price, director of UIR, said.
Price said the establishment of WARF, founded in 1925, is now the world’s oldest and best-established university intellectual property organization.
From the early 1980s, the development of University Research Park was central to helping shift the mindset to being more accepting of entrepreneurship or the partnering of business and industry.
UIR was one of the first offices to play an integral role in organizing research and facilitating programs designed to create connections between university researchers and business and industry.
The Industrial and Economic Development Research program, cited in the report, distributes $900,000 each year in small grants to research that is likely to benefit the state’s economy.
The program was supposed to receive an increase in funding under Madison Initiative, but because of the state’s budget deficit will instead lose $260,000 in state funding.
