UW-Madison's research enterprise shapes medicine, agriculture, and basic science in ways that ripple across decades. Build research platforms worthy of a university where world-changing discoveries begin.
The Madison Research Technology Challenge
WARF's model — where university inventions generate royalties that fund further research, creating a virtuous cycle of discovery and commercialization — requires sophisticated technology to track the IP lifecycle from faculty disclosure through patent issuance, licensing negotiation, and royalty distribution. Managing thousands of active patents across dozens of technology domains, while simultaneously administering the grant programs that generate the research, demands research administration infrastructure that can handle this complexity.
Biotech and Research Platform Solutions
Technology Transfer
Commercialize discoveries efficiently:
- Invention disclosure: Structured disclosure intake with faculty submission portal and staff review workflow
- IP portfolio management: Patent application tracking, attorney assignment, and maintenance schedule
- Licensing management: Agreement drafting support, negotiation tracking, and term management
- Royalty distribution: Inventor share calculation and distribution tracking per UW royalty policy
Grant Management
Win and manage research funding:
- Pre-award tools: Budget development templates, proposal routing, and sponsor submission deadline management
- NIH eRA Commons: API integration for grant status, award notices, and RPPR submission tracking
- Financial management: Grant account spend tracking, effort reporting, and budget reallocation tools
- Compliance tools: Prior approval requirement tracking and sponsor term compliance monitoring
Research Informatics
Support scientific discovery:
- LIMS: Sample management, assay result tracking, and instrument data capture for UW research labs
- REDCap integration: Research data management with REDCap API for clinical and translational research
- Field trial data: Agricultural experiment station data collection and analysis workflow tools
- Bioinformatics: Genomics and proteomics data management pipeline tools for UW life sciences programs
IRB and Compliance
Protect research participants and integrity:
- Protocol management: IRB submission, review, and approval lifecycle for UW-Madison human subjects research
- Continuing review: Protocol renewal tracking with researcher reminders and compliance alerts
- Data use agreements: DUA negotiation tracking and data governance compliance for shared datasets
- Research integrity: Conflict of interest management and research misconduct reporting workflow
Madison's Research Economy
UW-Madison's research enterprise generates over $1.4 billion in annual sponsored research expenditures — making it one of the largest research universities by this measure — while WARF's royalty income funds graduate fellowships, laboratory equipment, and building renovations that maintain the research infrastructure. Technology that helps WARF commercialize discoveries faster and helps researchers spend less time on administration translates directly into more scientific output from one of America's most productive research universities.
Ready to build your research platform? Contact ZIRA Software to discuss your life sciences technology needs.