The University of Wisconsin–Madison is set to receive more than $56 million in new funding for research initiatives after the passage of two federal appropriations packages.
The set of bipartisan bills, signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 9 and March 23, will fund the federal government through Sept. 30. Both pieces of legislation included funding for research projects specific to UW–Madison.
The bills’ passage allows the campus to continue research in several high-demand areas, including the social and economic vitality of rural communities, and next-generation energy development.
UW–Madison funded initiatives include:
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$28.75 million: Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center;
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$10 million: PANTHER — a biomedical research program addressing traumatic brain injuries;
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$5 million: Center for Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Propulsion;
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$3 million: Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives Program;
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$3 million: Monitoring, Modeling and Visualization of Historic Structures;
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$2 million: Institute for Rural Partnerships;
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$2 million: to establish a Regional Center to Combat the Fentanyl Crisis;
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$1 million: USDA-ARS Research Facilities Maintenance and Repair;
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$963,000: UW–Madison PFAS Center of Excellence Analytical Laboratory equipment upgrades; and
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$430,000: Germplasm Enhancement of Maize.
The funded initiatives reflect UW–Madison’s diverse research portfolio — one of the nation’s largest. Last year, the university topped $1.5 billion in research expenditures, ranking eighth among all public and private universities, according to the latest Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) data.
