The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation announced Thursday that it provided $160.7 million in total support to research and innovation at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research in the fiscal year ending in June 2026.
The funding includes annual grants for both institutions, supplemental grants for special initiatives and in-kind support for operations, investments and inventors.
“This commitment is about giving UW–Madison researchers the resources, spaces and support they need to move ambitious ideas forward,” WARF CEO Erik Iverson said in a press release. “WARF is proud to help sustain an environment where discovery can grow into new knowledge, new companies and new solutions for Wisconsin and beyond.”
WARF said the total includes a recently announced $27 million investment to accelerate high-impact research.
The total $160.7 million consisted of:
- $52.9 million for research projects to support strategic initiatives, research programs, grant matches, WARF Accelerator and WARF Therapeutics.
- $36 million for researchers, in the form of direct support to current and future faculty, graduate students and staff scientists.
- $39.6 million of operational, investment and invention support provided by WARF at no cost to the university.
- $5.2 million to the Morgridge Institute for Research, a nonprofit medical research organization with a mission to advance human health.
Incorporated in 1925, WARF patents and licenses discoveries from UW-Madison research and manages an investment portfolio generated from licensing and investment proceeds.
