Protect Wisconsin’s cutting edge science

Wisconsin State Journal – Opinion

A Wisconsin Technology Council study reports a 25-year slide toward weaker public support for higher education in Wisconsin. It reported a steady erosion of the infrastructure that supports academic research in Wisconsin, much of which lies in UW-Madison’s life sciences department. This downward spiral can be seen in the steady decrease in faculty, academic staff, course selections and laboratory sessions.

This erosion now threatens Wisconsin’s research and development foundation, best seen in the mediocre state funding of our greatest potential treasure --- stem cell research.

This situation threatens to weaken UW-Madison’s ability to compete for merit-based federal research grants, jeopardizing the receipt of millions of federal National Institutes of Health research dollars in the coming decade. The report states that Wisconsin’s total academic R&D spending at $805.8 million in federal, state and private sources, with the latter contributing a mere $109 million.

This statistic alone suggest to me that that Wisconsin investment in such research is not giving a sufficient and fair payback to the taxpayers, and until it does, Wisconsin’s investment in such research will continue to decrease.

To turn this situation around and re-establish Wisconsin’s position in academic research and development, I urge our governor and the Legislature to develop intellectual property laws that will protect and grow the Wisconsin taxpayers’ investment in academic research and development.

Such legislation exists in California, where millions of dollars raised through state bonds have already leveraged more in grants and loans into stem cell research and development.

Bill Benedict, Madison