Gov. Jim Doyle made a series of announcements regarding Wisconsin’s future in energy innovation Tuesday, which included setting a date for the opening of the new Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.

Doyle was attending the 2010 BIO International Convention in Chicago – the largest biotech conference in the world – when he made the announcements. The announcements included the creation of a state energy consortium, the state’s hosting of an innovation research conference next year and the opening of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery in December.

The WID was first proposed by Doyle in 2004 as a way to increase Wisconsin’s standing in terms of research and technology innovation. It will be a public-private enterprise, housing both the public Institutes for Discovery connected with the University of Wisconsin and the private Morgridge Institute for Research.

There will also be a Town Center on the main floor of the WID, created so scientists, students and businesses can all collaborate and interact.

Janet Kelly, spokesperson for the Morgridge Institute for Research, said the insitute’s goal is to research biotechnology innovations to improve human health. This includes looking at world health problems on a large scale and finding out what discoveries are needed to find solutions to those problems.

Kelly added she thinks the WID will provide great opportunities for scientists to work together, as well as pull in talent from other areas of the country.

“The whole idea of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery is to create interaction and collaboration among scientists from different fields,” she said. “People will encounter each other and talk about things they might not normally talk about.”

Doyle also announced the creation of a clean energy systems consortium at the conference, which would include collaborative research efforts between UW, UW-Milwaukee, Marquette University and the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Paul Peercy, dean of the UW College of Engineering, said the different academic institutions will work under the state’s Department of Commerce and engage both scientists and people from the clean energy industry.

“If you look at big issues facing Wisconsin and the nation, and in fact the world, energy is the top of the list,” Peercy said. “For us to become much more efficient in the manner we generate, transport and use energy, we need a lot of different organizations working together.”

The consortium will focus on research in areas of energy efficiency, wind power, biofuel and other energy systems.

As part of a plan to strengthen the state’s economic development in the energy field, Doyle also announced Wisconsin will host a national small business innovation research conference next April, which is expected to draw more than 800 people to the state.

The conference will present opportunities for small business owners to interact with government officials and learn how to obtain funding for their innovation projects.

“It is very exciting to have this national conference come to Wisconsin just a few months after we open the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery,” Sangtae Kim, director of the Morgridge Institute for Research and the co-chair of the conference, said in a statement. “This conference will bring national attention to our efforts to spur startups in Wisconsin, especially in the biomedical field.”