While attending the annual Association of American Universities in Montreal this week, Chancellor Biddy Martin forged connections with attendees for future collaboration and learned of Canadian innovations in garnering federal support for research.

A founding member of the AAU, Senior Special Assistant to the Chancellor Rhonda Norsetter said UW is viewed in a prestigious light of leadership among the 60 other institutions.

This year, the conference focused on the similarities and differences between major Canadian and American research universities.

A major point of discussion at the conference was whether recent Canadian innovations in federal government and research university relationships could be modeled in the United States, Martin said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald.

One example Martin gave was whether the federal government could be persuaded over time to invest more in the excellence and competitiveness of its public higher education institutions.

“There were no conclusions, but interesting discussions about where higher education is headed in the U.S.,” Martin said.

The possibilities for collaboration in research and policy changes that often come from these conferences was an important aspect to Martin’s visit, according to Norsetter.

Martin said she expects to work with some of her counterparts at the great public institutions on possible foundation and grant funding for student financial aid. She also expects to collaborate on larger questions about the changing economic model for public universities.

In addition, Martin said there is a consortium of universities focused on global health, which offers compelling options for collaboration.

“I would like to have our campus coordinate our efforts in global public health, offer students more opportunities to contribute and join the consortium,” Martin said. “Given UW-Madison’s strengths in the various disciplines required to address global health issues, our campus should be taking a leadership role.”

Also discussed at the conference were challenges and opportunities facing research universities such as rising tuition and student financial aid, diversity, internationalization and changing demographics, and the implications of these on curricular and extra-curricular experiences.

Although the current proposal to restructure the UW research enterprise was not part of the discussions, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and UW were cited as national leaders, according to Martin.