Competition sets focus for WID

As construction of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery gets under way gets under way, many are wondering exactly what will happen inside the new research facility on University Avenue when it opens in 2010.

The answer? It’s up to the imagination of UW–Madison faculty. The research programs, or “themes,” for the public, university half of the building — known as the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID) — will be decided through a campuswide competition to be announced on Sept. 1, with pre-proposals due on Nov. 1.

“Not only will this be a fabulous building,” says Marsha Mailick Seltzer, director of the Waisman Center and WID’s interim director, “but the research themes housed within WID will reflect the best ideas from campus for new areas of interdisciplinary, collaborative investigation relevant to the mission of the institute.”

Since September 2006, the WID program committee chaired by Seltzer has met at least once a month to discuss all aspects of the institute, including governance, structure, research and outreach programs. Most of all, the committee has deliberated over WID’s mission, which is “to enhance human health and welfare by facilitating interdisciplinary research spanning biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technologies,” says Seltzer.

Conversations about WID have also taken place in dozens of meetings with committees and individuals across campus, as the WID program committee has continually sought the reactions of faculty, staff and administrators to its plans.

“At every turn, Marsha has worked tremendously hard to make this an open and consultative process,” says Martin Cadwallader, dean of the Graduate School. “I applaud her efforts and I think they’ve resulted in a bold new model for facilitating interdisciplinary research and a great opportunity for the campus.”

With WID now officially approved as a center within the Graduate School, the next step is to select five research themes that will exemplify its mission. In the competition launching this September, faculty members will be invited to submit proposals for the themes, each of which is meant to be an “umbrella area” with an overarching vision and goals, says Seltzer. In other words, each theme will focus on a broad set of research directions relevant to the mission of WID, under which faculty will pursue individual projects.

Keeping with the overall spirit of the Institutes for Discovery — which also include the private, nonprofit Morgridge Institute for Research — the five themes, once selected, will each be carried out by an interdisciplinary group of faculty members. Four faculty from each theme will have space in the WID building, but they will also have strong ties to faculty elsewhere at UW–Madison.

“Each theme will include faculty members with deep commitments to discovery and who collaborate with each other,” Seltzer says.

Of the four faculty members within each theme, three will be new to UW–Madison, who the current faculty will help to recruit. Themes are being organized in this way to create an opportunity for campus growth and to widen the possibilities for innovation.

“We all know faculty members who have ideas about developing exciting research areas by bringing in new colleagues, new approaches and new ways of thinking about problems,” says Seltzer. “That’s what WID is offering us, in five areas all at once.”

As faculty members begin pondering possible themes, Seltzer has offered some criteria to keep in mind (a full set will be released on Sept. 1). Successful proposals will explain why WID is the best fit for the theme; describe how each faculty position will contribute to the theme’s focus, and how the faculty members will collaborate; demonstrate the theme’s interdisciplinary nature and its unifying concept; explain how the theme is innovative; and describe how it will integrate at least two of WID’s three thrust areas (biotechnology, nanotechnology and infotechnology) to advance human health and welfare.

Outcomes for human health and welfare should be more than a “theoretical possibility,” adds Seltzer; rather, the potential benefits should be tangible and clear.

In addition, successful proposals will outline a set of outreach and educational objectives for communicating the theme’s science to K-12 students and the public. Proposals should also suggest plans for engaging the arts, humanities and/or social sciences.

For more information, visit http://www.discovery.wisc.edu, or contact Seltzer at 263-5940, mseltzer@waisman.wisc.edu.