Reinventing Discovery
The world's greatest scientific challenges can't be met by individual scientists, laboratories, or departments. The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery is an experiment in interdisciplinarity, combining the best minds in new teams with powerful tools that transcend the boundaries of departments and fields.
Learn more about WID > Innovations in the research process help us solve the biggest problems with a new approach to science:
Targeted Expertise
Convening experts from emerging fields
Training & Teaching
Cultivating interdisciplinary skills and language
Town Halls & Forums
Gathering diverse ideas and people
Tackling Challenges
Addressing ambitious Grand Challenges
Expertise at WID
Stories of Discovery
Research, outreach, and initiatives at WID embody the Wisconsin Idea — reaching beyond the walls of the institute and the UW campus and into the lives of citizens across the state, country, and world.
PICKET CHARLIE Table Read Audio Performance – Listen Today!
Picket Charlie is an environmental thriller about a US Forestry Ranger who must defend her island reserve of trees from a band of ruthless timber pirates in a near-future world ravaged by climate change. This table read production is a result of WID’s Science to Script Writer in Residency's inaugural writer, Michael Graf.
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University of the Air: The Science of Life’s Origin
David Baum discusses different theories that have been proposed to explain the origin of life and summarizes ongoing work in his laboratory and elsewhere with WPR's Norman Gilliland.
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What Will We Reap Without Topsoil?
WID Director, Jo Handelsman speaks to Science Friday's Ira Flatow about the value of soil and her upcoming book A World Without Soil.
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Grand Challenges
Discovery Hubs
WID’s hubs act as integrators for the campus community, generating new ideas that nucleate new collaborative research projects. The hubs make use of WID expertise to provide services that assist other researchers in applying specialized tools to a range of problems extending far beyond the scope of WID’s programs. Explore WID’s Hubs:
