Currently under construction, both the public and private sectors of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery are scheduled to open in 2010 on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The twin institutes will function as collaborative centers for research, education, growth and communication, with the goal of driving technology and discoveries in Wisconsin.

Leader: Carl Gulbrandsen

Position: Chair of the Morgridge Institute for Research Board and managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF)

Website: www.discovery.wisc.edu

What role will the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery play in the community and state?

The overall focus of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery is collaboration.

One of the features of this facility is the town center. The town center is designed to bring people from the greater community together. Give them good food and drink. Have space for symposia. Space for clinics. Really involve them in what’s happening with research here at the University of Wisconsin.

Part of the outreach plan includes collaboration with schools and students K-12. What will this entail?

Each of the research floors has an embedded teaching lab in it.

There are opportunities for people throughout the university to bring classes in. There are also opportunities for the researchers in the facility itself to hold classes. To give a teacher at a rural school an opportunity to come in and actually do research for a period of time in the facility and then go back and teach it, that’d be great.

How will the institutes help move Wisconsin forward?

This is the first time we have ever built a laboratory facility that is designed for interdisciplinary research.

From a statewide standpoint, one of the things that we fully expect to have in the facility is state-of-the-art technology. To have communication with people throughout the state as well as throughout the world.

What aspects of the institutes are direct reflections of need in the state?

I do think this building will set a standard for how you can build a research building. It will be LEED certified.

The goal has been that this building uses 50 percent less energy and water than the most recently constructed research facility on campus. And we will easily meet that goal.

So far, what has been your favorite moment or memory involving the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery?

I think it’s the excitement that it has caused here on campus and in people that are involved in the project, including the construction people. It’s the ability to capture that kind of pride and enthusiasm that has been the best thing, I think. And you know we’ve been facing a declining state budget. People have needed good news here. This is good news.