Wisconsin Institute for Discovery

The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (sometimes referred to as WID) is an interdisciplinary public research institute on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in Madison, WI. The institute is located in the Discovery Building, which also houses the private biomedical-focused Morgridge Institute for Research and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation's Town Center, with which WID regularly partners to deliver outreach programming and public events. WID opened in 2010 with five research themes, which have since evolved as collaborations crossed disciplinary boundaries and new research teams formed.

The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery is led by Director Jo Handelsman, who was appointed in February, 2017, after serving in the Obama White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Research

The current research strengths of WID, the faculty of which hold dual appointments at the institute and in home departments across campus, include data science and visualization, tissue engineering and nanomedicine, -omics, health, and agriculture, and complex systems. WID is unique in its approach to science: calling on a broad community to identify and find solutions to big problems, encouraging interdisciplinary thought and action, and championing the Wisconsin Idea as a central tenet.

WID also houses "Discovery Hubs" that are designed to be integrators for the campus community, generating new ideas that nucleate new collaborative projects. The hubs make use of WID expertise to provide services that assist other researchers in applying specialized tools to a range of problems extending beyond the scope of WID's programs. The current hubs are the Data Science Hub, the Multi-Omics Hub, and the Discovery Dialogue Hub.

History

In 2008, under the leadership of interim director, John Wiley, a university-wide competition was held and five research themes, as well as their senior faculty theme leaders, were identified. These founding themes were Bionates, Epigenetics, the Living Environments Laboratory, Optimization and Systems Biology. At the close of 2010 the Discovery Building was completed, and three organizations moved into the building: the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, a Research Center under the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education (OVCRGE); the Morgridge Institute for Research (MIR), a privately funded institute focused on improving human health by conducting and translating innovative, interdisciplinary biomedical research in partnership with UW-Madison; and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and Town Center and building management staff for WARF. The Town Center is a place to gather, share ideas, and celebrate science, creativity and exploration.

The award-winning modern space at 330 North Orchard Street is a visionary public-private partnership housing twin research institutes. The research space within the Discovery Building is shared equally between MIR and WID. The building is officially called the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, reflecting the two separate research institutes, but for clarity it is most commonly referred to as the Discovery Building. The building was funded through support from WARF, the State of Wisconsin, and John and Tashia Morgridge.

The initial mission of WID, as defined by the Academic Planning Council of 2007, was stated as follows: “The mission of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery is to enhance human health and welfare by facilitating interdisciplinary research spanning biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technologies. This research will lead to discoveries of new biomedical treatments and technological applications. WID will engage faculty members from across the campus and all divisions of the university in creative collaborative research, education, and outreach.”

WID was created in 2010 to explore new ways of sparking innovation in science and engineering. WID’s first 7 years were dedicated to building its research programs. The areas in which WID has developed expertise are data science, tissue engineering, multi-omics, nanomedicine, and complex systems.