Karen Herzog, and Kathleen Gallagher

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

For the first time in nearly 45 years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has fallen from its standing among the nation's top five research universities, according to data from the National Science Foundation.

UW-Madison had been ranked among the top five in research expenditures since 1972, but a drop in research activity in fiscal year 2015 bumped the state's flagship university from fourth to sixth among all U.S. private and public universities, according to the most recent figures compiled by the NSF.



UW-Madison had just under $1.1 billion in annual spending for research across all fields, data released late last week by the NSF showed.

"If UW-Madison falling out of the top five is an anomaly, it's one thing," said Mark Bugher, retired director of University Research Park and former secretary of administration under Gov. Tommy Thompson. "But if it's a pattern, it's a tragedy."

UW-Madison's drop out of the top five research institutions is a canary in the coal mine — and if it becomes a pattern "it would be wise for state officials to be concerned," Bugher said.

"We in Wisconsin can’t claim we’re in the top five on many things, but this is one where we’ve consistently been able to demonstrate to the world that UW-Madison is a premier research institution," Bugher said. "To lose that distinction is unacceptable, in my opinion."

Critics of state budget cuts have warned for years that continued cuts in the state's investment could lead to the state's flagship campus struggling to keep star researchers from being lured away by other elite research powerhouses. There are also concerns that less research activity at UW-Madison will hurt Wisconsin's ability to participate in the knowledge economy and create high-potential, job-creating start-ups.

"The alternative to a strong UW system is a continued brain drain from the state of Wisconsin and thousands, if not tens of thousands, of lost jobs," said Joe Kirgues, co-founder of gener8tor, a start-up accelerator.

Gener8tor receives funding from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) — the technology transfer arm of UW-Madison — to help transfer university technology into commercial businesses through its gBeta program. Four gBeta programs have produced 20 start-ups that have in their first year raised a total of more than $1.5 million of outside funding, Kirgues said.

"Our fervent hope is that the state's elected and business leaders work together to keep this university an internationally recognized research school," Kirgues said.



Among the 600 universities in the NSF data, five ranked ahead of UW-Madison: Johns Hopkins University; the University of Michigan; the University of Washington; the University of California, San Francisco; and the University of California, San Diego.

"Make no mistake about it, we are still very much an elite research institution," said Marsha Mailick, UW-Madison's vice chancellor for research and graduate education. "But it will take more reinvestment in our faculty ranks and research infrastructure if we are to be more competitive with peer institutions who are making those investments."

Money from UW-Madison research grants is spent in every one of Wisconsin's 72 counties, the school said. UW-Madison — through WARF's activities — ranked seventh among universities worldwide in 2015 with 161 new patents, according to the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association.

Nearly 25,000 jobs supported through 362 start-up companies can be attributed to UW-Madison research programs, contributing $2.3 billion annually to Wisconsin's economy, according to NorthStar Economics.

But while the university has excelled at attracting research dollars, it has lagged its peers at turning that research into start-ups. UW-Madison reported that it formed six start-ups in 2015, according to the nonprofit Association of University Technology Managers. There were 51 universities that reported forming more than six start-ups last year, AUTM said.

UW-Madison said its efforts to keep top faculty have become more difficult as other states increase their contributions to public higher education and expand their faculty. The state's flagship campus spent $23.6 million in retention efforts this past year, according to a report released in October, which showed 232 efforts to retain tenured and tenure-track faculty in 2015-'16. Of the 144 faculty being recruited by other universities, UW-Madison was able to retain 111, or 77%.

UW-Madison spends nearly $9 million to retain faculty stars

If the university hadn't succeeded in keeping 40 faculty in Wisconsin who had offers last fall, they collectively would have taken $18 million in federal research grants elsewhere, Chancellor Rebecca Blank told the UW Board of Regents in February.

The vice chancellor for research on Tuesday called on the state to reinvest in the flagship campus. The university is taking steps to compete for research funding down the road with new programs such as UW2020, Mailick said. Funded by WARF, UW2020 aims to support ambitious early stage research and provide new investment for research infrastructure.

"But having the resources to add new faculty would be a real shot of adrenalin and lead to sustained growth," Mailick said.

UW-Madison is one the most well-funded universities in the nation and remains a research powerhouse, Tom Evenson, a spokesman for Gov. Scott Walker, wrote in an email. Walker plans to invest more into the UW System in the next budget, tying such investment to performance-based metrics, Evenson said.

"His focus is to invest in the university in a way that enhances career-oriented instruction to help students and employers looking for jobs and workers in high-demand fields," he said.