Health Care & Discovery

Wisconsin continues to face significant workforce shortages across healthcare and behavioral health professions, including nursing, pharmacy, allied health, healthcare administration, counseling, social work, and other emerging fields. To address these critical needs, funding will support increased enrollment capacity, expanded faculty and instructional resources, development of new academic programs, and strengthened educational pathways that prepare more qualified professionals to serve communities across the state. Investments will also expand behavioral health training opportunities and increase the number of licensed providers available to meet growing demand for healthcare and mental health services throughout Wisconsin. Examples of proposed university investments include:

UW-La Crosse will grow its healthcare programs, such as those for physician assistants, physical therapists, and radiation therapy. The requested funding will allow faculty, instructional academic staff, and support staff to provide student services, including instruction, academic success support, career advising, financial aid, and enhanced clinical training opportunities in rural environments for medical and all health care students. UW-La Crosse will implement a preceptor training program to train practicing professionals to provide guidance, teaching, and evaluation within the students’ clinical sites. Investments in distance education technology and infrastructure, lab enhancements, and other student spaces will be necessary.

UW-Parkside will expand healthcare education opportunities in southeastern Wisconsin by developing accredited nursing programs that increase the pipeline of qualified healthcare professionals entering Wisconsin’s workforce. Through expanded clinical partnerships with hospitals, health systems, long-term care facilities, and community health organizations, students will gain greater access to high-quality hands-on training and experiential learning opportunities. These partnerships will strengthen alignment between academic programming and employer workforce needs, ensuring graduates develop the clinical, technical, and professional competencies most in demand across healthcare settings. By creating stronger pathways from education to employment and responding directly to regional workforce shortages, UW-Parkside will increase the number of practice-ready healthcare professionals available to improve access to care and support the health needs of communities throughout Wisconsin.

UW-Oshkosh will enhance health-related academic programs and training capacity to increase the number of qualified healthcare professionals entering Wisconsin’s workforce. By strengthening programs across nursing, health professions, STEM, population health, and health informatics, the university will provide more students with access to high-quality clinical, simulation, and community-based learning experiences that prepare them for practice in today’s evolving healthcare environment. The integration of digital care, analytics, artificial intelligence, and population health competencies into curricula will support growth in program enrollment and graduate output. These efforts will strengthen workforce readiness, create additional pathways into high-demand healthcare careers, expand the availability of health professionals, and improve access to care throughout Wisconsin.

Advancing the Universities of Wisconsin’s mission to improve human health and accelerate cures, these investments support research, innovation, and workforce development across a broad range of health challenges, including cancer, infectious and inflammatory diseases, neurological disorders, and other significant conditions. These initiatives strengthen the entire innovation pipeline, from discovery and translation to commercialization by expanding research capacity, clinical and community partnerships, and technologies that enhance quality of life, prevention, and care. Through collaboration across UW universities, these efforts reinforce Wisconsin’s biomedical innovation ecosystem, promote interdisciplinary research, and position the state for sustained leadership in healthcare advancement, scientific discovery, and economic growth. Examples of proposed university investments include:

UW-Madison would use this funding to sustain the infrastructure that has enabled significant growth in clinical trials across the School of Medicine and Public Health, a critical investment that can no longer rely solely on the annual support UW-Madison has provided since FY21. Expanding clinical trials remains one of the most effective ways to accelerate the development of treatments and cures for complex diseases, with the number of active trials increasing steadily during this period, including a substantial portfolio at the Carbone Cancer Center. Beyond this growth, clinical trials have driven important advances in patient care, including innovative cellular therapies that harness a patient’s immune system to fight cancer and theragnostic approaches that both identify tumor locations and deliver targeted radiation treatment.

UW-Milwaukee will accelerate the discovery and translation of new treatments and cures for Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, neurological disorders, infectious diseases, and other major health challenges by expanding interdisciplinary research capacity, advancing drug discovery, strengthening rehabilitation and human performance innovation, and enhancing pathways from laboratory discoveries to real-world patient care. Leveraging UWM’s nationally recognized strengths in brain health, neuroscience, digital health, and translational research, this work will support research infrastructure, partnerships with healthcare systems and regional universities, and shared innovation resources that accelerate the development, testing, and commercialization of new therapies, medical technologies, and diagnostics.

UW-Eau Claire will advance innovative treatments and community-based solutions for neurological conditions and chronic diseases, including stroke, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, traumatic brain injury, aphasia, and other age-related health challenges. Building on the university’s strengths in health sciences and community partnerships, the Blugold Brain Health program and Healthspan Research & Education Center will expand access to evidence-based care, support healthier aging, improve health outcomes, and help translate research into practice, particularly in rural communities.