Program areas at WiSys Technology Foundation
Intellectual property & licensing:the Wisys Technology Foundation was established in march 2000. Wisys was created by the universities of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin alumni research Foundation (warf) to comply with the bayh-dole act and be the designated office for intellectual property management for all uw institutions other than uw-madison. Today, Wisys continues to provide intellectual property management services to comply with the bayh-dole act for the 11 universities of Wisconsin regional campuses while also providing support services for innovation and research development.during fiscal 2022-23, Wisys reviewed 44 new invention disclosures received from uw-system faculty and students and accepted 23 of the disclosures for further study and patenting. During fiscal 2022-23, Wisys applied for 10 u.s. Patents and derivatives. Wisys also applied for 0 new foreign applications and derivatives. In addition Wisys received 7 u.s. Issued patents. Wisys completed 2 new license and options agreements and 0 new material transfer agreements. Wisys operates its offices located at 614 walnut street, 13th floor, madison, Wisconsin with 12 professional staff. In addition, at june 30, 2023, Wisys had 7 ambassadors working through the various uw campuses along with 2 student interns.
Research development:the Wisys research development program (formerly known as pre-award program, or prep) is a program piloted from july 2017-june 2020 that aims to provide grant submission support to uw regional campuses. Through regular virtual and in-person visits, the research development staff will be available to help build capacity for research conducted on the regional campuses and faculty to enrich universities of Wisconsin research and scholarship and, ultimately, the undergraduate student experience. Three "foundational goals" define this activity: educating and coaching faculty grant seekers, strengthening campus research culture, and developing research administrator capacities. Wisys research development is designed to be inclusive, engaging senior administrators, research administrators, and faculty from any discipline, helping to bridge gaps in knowledge and skills and in culture and motivation to sustain and grow levels of faculty innovation.
Innovation programs:the innovation programs include the Wisconsin big idea tournament which was established to help extend the Wisconsin entrepreneurial ecosystem to university of Wisconsin students, with a goal to improve the overall quality of business startup performance, along with Wisys scholar/scientist awards which are designed to help accelerate the cycle of development and commercialization of applied and translational research. The program also includes 2022 Wisys spark symposium (spark) which was jointly organized by Wisys and uw-lacrosse to bring together innovative researchers and students from the universities of Wisconsin and other public and private organizations. Spark allows uw regional institutions to showcase their research and Technology development as well as engage in discussions for development of collaborative partnerships with other uw researchers, students and industry professionals from around the state. This year's attendance in-person, with 198 registrations and approximately 175 attendees.
Innovative ventures:innovative ventures is a Wisys program to support the development of scaleable companies from the innovations, ideas, and intellectual property produced from the faculty, staff, students, and alumni of the universities of Wisconsin regional campuses. A component of innovative ventures is the Wisys venturehome program. It is a network of startup hubs across five cities in the state of Wisconsin that connects statewide resources with local initiatives to provide entrepreneurs access to a full menu of startup resources in their local communities. Some of the centralized services that venturehome offers are, a concierge service to the larger state-wide ecosystem, entrepreneur toolkits, access to research and technologies coming out of the university of Wisconsin system, intellectual property and legal strategy assistance, and seed funding. In addition, each local venturehome provides services such as co-working space, access to uw events and resources, and local mentors.