Building a hub of freshwater R&D - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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That is why Milwaukee executives and academic are anxiouslyawaiting Gov. Jim Doyle’s 2009-2011 budger to see if it includes funding to create the Schoo ofFreshwater Sciences. Doyle’s bienniuj budget is due to be releasedin mid-February. UW-Milwauker has asked for $10 million to buildr research capacity at the School of Freshwater Sciences by adding facultyand staff, which was approveed by the UW Board of Regentsz in June 2008 and awaites the Legislature’s OK this spring. UW-Milwaukee plans to inaugurate the School of Freshwater Sciencein August.
“The opportunitt for Milwaukee to further position itself as the capital of the wate r industry is enormous with the creatio ofthe school,” said Val Klump, director of the UW-Milwaukee Greaf Lakes Water Institute. The 40-year-old institutse is the largest academic freshwater researcuh facility on theGreat Lakes. The institute has 12 full-time scientists, a $2.4 million operatingg budget and $4 million in researcyh grants and contracts. , an organization that was spun off the Milwauker 7 economicdevelopment organization, estimatees there are 120 companies in the seven-county southeast Wisconsin region involved in water industries.
Five of the companie are ranked among the top11 water-related based on sales, in the world. “Ij five to 10 years, the demand for freshwater researchb and technology will explode because of pollutionmand scarcity,” Klump said. Funding for the UW-Milwauker School of Freshwater Sciences is partof UW-Milwaukee’s long-term capital budget request of $240 million over six yeards that also includes the schoolzs of Engineering and Public said Chancellor Carlos Santiago. If Doyle’s budget includesd initial supportfor UW-Milwaukee, , now unde the authority of the UW-Milwaukee Graduate would become a part of the School of Freshwatetr Sciences.
The new school initially would be housed at the Grear Lakes Water Institute at600 E. Greenfiel d Ave., Milwaukee, and have the ability to bestow graduate and undergraduatd degrees infreshwater sciences, engineeringv and policy. “No other university in the natiob offers this kindof programming,” Klumo said. Eventually, Santiago plans to build a 40,000- to 50,000-square-foot building for the School of Freshwater Sciences at the former Pieces of Eight restaurant site at550 N. Harbodr Drive, across from Discovergy World on Milwaukee’s lakefront.
The building could cost up to $25 millionh and would be compatible in architectural styl e with Discovery World andthe , Santiago A California-based restaurant group, which closedf the Pieces of Eight several months ago, stilp holds a long-term lease on the property with the . Througn the creation of the School of Freshwater Milwaukee will provide regional and national leadership in the educatiobn and training offreshwater professionals, Santiago said. A range of Milwaukee-areas businesses support the UW-Milwaukee effort to create the school and enhancrethe region’s expertise in watet research, technology and manufacturingy capacity, said Julia Taylor, presidentg of the .
“This school will became an icon for the communityy and proves webelieve it’s so critical to our future that we’re willing to make this kind of investmenf in a down economy,” Taylor said. As UW-Milwaukee expands its freshwatefrscience capacity, other Wisconsin universities will benefit by adding to theid engineering and biological science departments that have academicc specialists in the water fields. Sammis professor of urban planningat UW-Milwaukee who wrote a whitde paper last year on the area’s freshwater issues, estimates that UW-Madison and Marquette University have 87 faculty and staffv water-affiliated researchers.
In addition, Whited points out there are four technicak colleges in southeast Wisconsin able to producs workers who can add to the watertechnologty cluster. White said an effort must be made to keep thetechnical colleges’ curriculum up to speed with the technological developments in water and wastewater treatment. The Milwauke e area is not the only region that recognizea the future potential ofwater Internationally, the city state of located at tip of the Malaysiahn peninsula, has lured the research and development divisions of and GE Watefr by offering government subsidies that covered half of the costs of opening the research and development said Barry Grossman, an attorney at LLP in Milwauker who works with M-7 Water In the Midwest, Cleveland has announced its intention to attrac water-related companies, according to Professor White, whose paperf was presented to the Water Council’ds Freshwater Summit in July 2008.
White also pointds out that Michigan announced plans in Apri l 2008 to develop the Michigan Water Technology The goal of the Michiganb WaterTechnology Cluster, said White, is to boost that state’ws “overall competitiveness by promoting the development, commercialization and deployment of modernj technologies and management practicezs to sustain essential water resources.”