WISYS TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION INC

Innovative ventures:the innovative ventures team supports the development of new ventures from uws intellectual property. They also run the wisys venturehome initiative a network of startup hubs. In fy25, 3 new communities were added to this network, growing to include nine communities in the state of wisconsin. The program connects statewide resources with local initiatives to provide entrepreneurs with access to a full menu of startup resources in their local communities. Some of the centralized services that venturehome offers are concierge access to the larger state-wide ecosystem, entrepreneur toolkits, access to research and technologies coming out of the universities of wisconsin, intellectual property and legal strategy assistance, and pre-seed funding. In addition, connect wisconsin is a digital community to provide online support for entrepreneurs, including connections to mentors state-wide. Level up! Launch pad and level up! Pre-seed accelerator were the two marquee programs that were offered, in addition to other entrepreneurship events and workshops. These programs together served over 86 entrepreneurs in fy25.

Research development:the wisys research development program provides grant preparation and writing support to the universities of wisconsin and other partners. Grant seekers can access multiple services, including expert one-on-one support with drafting proposals, proposal reviews, and funding searches. Regular virtual and in person grant writing workshops include grant writing academy, a virtual workshop aimed at newcomers to grant writing that is held across four two-hour sessions each fall. Wisys also annually sponsors the council on undergraduate research to run an intensive 6-day workshop in which faculty work with expert mentors to prepare a competitive proposal. Finally, wisys research development provides live and on-demand webinars about a wide range of topics for grantseekers at all levels. In fy2025, wisys research development served 169 people across all the uws campuses, with more than a quarter of these people accessing multiple research development services that year.

Innovation events:wisys organizes several events and competitions geared towards honing innovation, entrepreneurship, and research skills among uw students, staff, faculty, and alumni. This includes four key programs that leverage expertise from across the state: 1) the wisys big idea tournament helps extend the wisconsin entrepreneurial ecosystem to uw students, with a goal to improve the overall quality of business startup performance. 2) innovation on-ramp, a 5-week hybrid course, helps uw students and other participants develop an innovative thinking mindset and learn how to evaluate the market need and potential of an idea. 3) wisys quick pitch is a research-focused student pitch competition that inspires uw students to consider the impact of their research and learn how to effectively communicate it to a general audience in three minutes. 4) the annual wisys spark symposium (spark) was jointly hosted by wisys and uw-superior in 2024 to bring together innovative researchers and students from the universities of wisconsin and other public and private organizations. Spark allows uw institutions to showcase their research and technology development as well as engage in discussions for development of collaborative partnerships with other uw campus researchers, students and industry professionals from around the state. This year's in-person engagement included 160 attendees and 56 projects presented during the two-day symposium. Across all the innovation programs, wisys engaged 625 students, faculty, and community leaders in fy25.

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