WARF, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, is the technology transfer office for the university. WARF was established in 1925 by Professor Harry Steenbock.
They take an invention by a faculty, staff, reseacher, or student to see if it’s patentable and move it to the marketplace. WARF has 400 inventions disclosed to it each year and patents about 240. Criteria for taking on an invention include legal test for patentability and the ability to predict whether early stage technologies will deliver. Generally, it takes about seven years for a technology to pan out, but it can be longer or not at all.
Over $1 billion of products are sold each year under license from WARF. Licensing proceeds are invested to fund further research at UW Madison; WARF gives the graduate school a lump sum to distribute. Since 1993, WARF has also taken equity in 31 faculty start-up companies.
It’s tax-exempt and not-for-profit, with a board comprised of alums. The challenges for WARF are to assure a consistent (or increased) grant to the university, particularly as state support decreases.
