The Podcast with Erik Iverson, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation; Advocacy group aims to stall bill to require local signoff for clean energy projects

WARF this year is celebrating its 100th anniversary, putting a spotlight on its role in supporting and commercializing UW-Madison research. Iverson shares his thoughts on the organization’s history, its wide-ranging impacts in Wisconsin and where it’s headed in the future.

“We now sit on significant resources that we put to work by making large grants back to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to support the continued phenomenal, world-class research that they do,” he said. “So it really is this cycle of providing grants to campus to support research, that research results in inventions, we protect those inventions, and find partners to take those forward to develop into products.”

Iverson discusses how WARF has impacted Wisconsin’s startup ecosystem, particularly over the past two decades as the foundation has put an increased focus on supporting businesses linked to the university. That can include working with faculty or students, as well as serial entrepreneurs.

Read more here: https://www.wisbusiness.com/2025/fri-am-news-wisbusiness-the-podcast-with-erik-iverson-wisconsin-alumni-research-foundation-advocacy-group-aims-to-stall-bill-to-require-local-signoff-for-clean-energy-projects/