Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

BACKING THE UNIVERSITY IS WARF’S STRENGTH

2024-25 Academic Year Support

Base Grant $68.8 million
Additional Grants $36.6 million
Operational and Functional Support $49.1 million
Morgridge Institute for Research $5.3 million
Total Support for UW-Madison and Affiliates $159.8 million

Base Grant

Our goal is to provide a consistent base grant that the university can rely on each year for support over multiple funding cycles. This base grant fuels the cycle of innovation at UW-Madison by providing support for faculty and student recruitment and retention and other initiatives. One of these initiatives, the Fall Research Competition, provides funding for cutting-edge research carried out by more than 400 faculty from departments throughout the university.

Faculty Recruitment and Retention $13.5 million
Fall Research Competition $11.4 million
Graduate Student Support $12.5 million
Faculty Fellowships $2.5 million
Strategic Initiatives (including Research Forward) $12.0 million
Grant Matches for Instrumentation, Facilities, Doctoral Training and Research Programs $6.5 million
Leadership, Personnel, Policy and Implementation Support $1.6 million
Cluster Hire Initiative, Wisconsin Crop Improvement and Biochemistry Innovation $8.6 million
Additional Support $0.2 million
Total Base Grant to the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Research:   $68.8 million

Additional Grants

WARF shares 15 percent of net revenue with the campus department (or similar organizational unit defined by the University) based on the location and affiliation of the principle inventor whose intellectual property is licensed to a commercial entity. The distribution occurs once a year in the fall. The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) is responsible for allocating and crediting the appropriate university accounts and sends a letter to the appropriate chair (or other administrator) informing them of this credit.

Along with UW-Madison leaders, WARF also considers requests for special initiatives. Knowing UW-Madison’s specific infrastructure needs, we approved an additional grant to help support the construction of new research buildings.

Anticipated Grants for WARF Accelerator and Therapeutics Programs $4.0 million
Anticipated Department Royalty Shares and Distribution of Department Royalty Funds $7.6 million
New Research Buildings and Major Equipment $10.0 million
Chancellor’s RISE-AI Initiative $15.0 million
Total Additional Grants:   $36.6 million

Operational and Functional Support for UW-Madison

Since 1925, WARF has provided mission-driven operational and functional support for UW-Madison in the form of technology commercialization and asset management. These wide-ranging services are a unique model in higher education as most universities must bear the cost of such expenses on their own.

Operational and Functional Support: $49.1 million

Morgridge Institute for Research Grant

WARF also supports the Morgridge Institute for Research, a private, nonprofit working to improve human health by conducting, enabling and translating interdisciplinary biomedical research in collaboration with UW-Madison.

Morgridge Institute for Research $5.3 million

Spending Guidelines

Our annual spending is determined based on a percentage of the value of WARF’s portfolio (more specifically, the unrestricted portfolio’s 12-quarter average market value). These funds will be used to support the annual grant to UW-Madison, the Morgridge Institute for Research and, if necessary, WARF operations.

The guidelines:

  • are aligned with spending rates of other institutions our size
  • allow us to support today’s researchers while maintaining support for future generations of university scientists

Resources

WARF