Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery



The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery is a visionary public-private partnership that is creating two world-class biomedical research institutes. Its partners include donors John and Tashia Morgridge, the state of Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

When it opens in December 2010, the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building will house twin interdisciplinary research institutes: the Morgridge Institute for Research, a private, nonprofit research institute dedicated to improving human health by accelerating scientific discovery to patient delivery; and the public Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, which is part of UW–Madison organized under its Graduate School. The facility will bring together scientists and researchers from a broad spectrum of disciplines, such as the arts, humanities, social sciences, education, business and law. It also will include extensive public space in its Town Center intended to promote dialogue among diverse parts of UW–Madison and the larger community.

The key objectives of the public-private partnership are to:

• Foster new approaches to biological and medical programs at the convergence of biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology;
• Create the potential for a fundamental transformation of human biology and medicine;
• Provide cutting edge scientific advances for clinical application and translation in the UW–Madison Medical School's new Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (formerly IRC);
• Build on the university's cluster hiring initiative by engaging and supporting more than 100 multi-disciplinary faculty hired as part of that initiative;
• Establish educational components that will integrate cross-disciplinary science into K-12, undergraduate and graduate education; and
• Facilitate the invention of technologies that can be transferred to the marketplace and create jobs.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle proposed the formation of the institutes in 2004, envisioning the project as a research enterprise that would strengthen the state's position in science and technology, and stimulate the economy. In 2006, John and Tashia Morgridge, alumni and friends of UW-Madison, made a gift of $50 million—the largest personal gift ever to the university—to make the institutes a reality.

Together with a matching gift from WARF and state funding, the institutes are nearing completion on the 1300 block of University Avenue, at the crossroads of science on the UW–Madison campus.