A recently released University of Wisconsin-Madison report describes campus initiatives encouraging innovation, echoing an October U.S. Department of Commerce report that highlighted UW-Madison programs.
The UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations, which connects university resources to business and industry, compiled the 2012-’13 Campus Innovation Report.
An introductory statement by Chancellor Rebecca Blank said the office has found ways to use university resources to strengthen the state’s economy and work with campus partners and the private sector.
“In my new role as chancellor, it is gratifying to see innovation and entrepreneurship at work in the classroom, the laboratory and the community,” Blank said in the statement.
The report pointed to programs including FluGen, a company founded by UW-Madison scientists that has made headway in developing vaccines to protect against a wider range of flu strains.
The U.S. Department of Commerce report, released in October, details how universities across the country are promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. It describes two events co-sponsored by the UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations.
The first program, the Entrepreneurial Deli, brings successful entrepreneurs to the campus to meet with students and talk about the “secret sauce” of their success, according to a WiscEvents description.
In addition, the office co-sponsors the 100-Hour Challenge, which the report describes as a competition where students purchase a product, change it and establish a website.
Both reports lauded the work of the UW-Madison Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, a nonprofit that grants money to support research at the university. The organization patents inventions arising from university research and licenses them to commercial companies. WARF then funnels profits back into university research purposes.
