Madison Reporter

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) has announced it is steering $130 million to the University of Wisconsin as part of its annual research grant to the school.

According to the Daily Cardinal, the contribution keeps alive a near century old tradition where WARF provides research funding to the Madison, Wisconsin, school for the fall and spring semesters.

“Announcing our annual grant is the highlight of our year,” WARF CEO, Erik Iverson, told the Daily Cardinal. “Our mission is to enable UW-Madison research to solve the world’s problems, and nothing serves that historic mission more fully than supporting outstanding researchers all across campus.”

The foundation’s mission is supporting research, according to the Daily Cardinal. It does this at UW-Madison by funding specific programs at the university and giving general grants to bolster research at the university to keep up its reputation as a world class institution.

The group manages an investment portfolio, generates revenue from licensing royalties and investment management. The foundation has invested directly in over 40 startups with UW-Madison technology and is working with companies that cover a wide range of technologies including artificial intelligence-enabled software programs, cancer diagnostics and advanced materials for batteries and vaccines, the Daily Cardinal reported.

In a recent study, graduate students tracked heat indexes in major cities, including Madison and Milwaukee, and used that data to create a heat warning system that could save lives, according to the university website.

As part of the study, researchers emphasized that people’s reactions to increased heat are more important than the heat itself and are using the data they’ve collected to determine what conditions of heat are most threatening to a person’s health.