"The water hub is an interesting wish construct which is taking shape, but everything takes time," said Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Gradute School.
Led by the Water Council, a Milwaukee-based trade group, the region is trying to lure new investment, jobs and research in the water engineering industries.
UWM ranked 179th in the country for research funding in 2014, with about $61 million of research spending, according to the National Science Foundation. About $11 million of that is spent on environmental sciences, and the school only has about $2 million of spending from business partnerships, data shows.
However, the area has a strategic location and resource in Lake Michigan, and UWM has set out building the freshwater science effort the city "wished for," Gajdardziska-Josifovska said.
Much of the work in this area in Milwaukee also is being done in other categories such as chemistry, biology and engineering, said Jeanne Hossenlopp, Marquette University's vice president for research and innovation.
The Medical College of Wisconsin — the area's largest academic research insitition with nearly $200 million of spending and a rank of 103rd — has among its top research focuses cancer, cardiovascular and neurosciences research, said Ann Nattinger, the school's senior associate dean for research.
She and other speakers at the lunch identified the , or CTSI, as a critical element in building research efforts in Milwaukee. The Medical College-led CTSI in August was awarded a five-year, $20 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to, working through a consortium of eight regional organizations, advance the health of the community through research and discovery.
The speakers were part of an event open to the public that was held in the offices of the law firm of Foley & Lardner and was organized by the Milwaukee Press Club.
©2015 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
