UW-Madison Says It Generates Billions for State’s Economy
New report finds it had $13.2 billion estimated impact in 2025.
The sun shines on Bascom Hill on Friday, Oct. 22, 2021, at UW-Madison in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
The University of Wisconsin-Madison says it contributed billions in statewide economic impact last fiscal year.
That’s according to a new analysis that was released by the university and completed by the consulting firm Tripp Umbach.
The report’s total includes $13.2 billion in estimated impact from UW-Madison, the flagship campus of the Universities of Wisconsin.
The report also encompasses $13.3 billion in impact from affiliated organizations including the UW Health system and UW research institutions.
And the tally includes $12.4 billion from hundreds of what the report refers to as “spinoff companies.” Those “startup companies (are) rooted in UW–Madison research,” the report says.
Included in that list of companies was Exact Sciences, the Madison-based health care diagnostics company. Exact Sciences generated roughly $3.25 billion in annual revenue and employed nearly 6,900 people in 2025, according to the report.
Kathleen Gallagher is executive director of the 5 Lakes Institute, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit that’s focused on regional economic development.
She acknowledged that “UW-Madison is incredibly important to the state, and is by far the biggest research university in Wisconsin.”
But she took issue with some of the report’s methodology in calculating the university’s total economic impact.
“It’s a stretch to even suggest that Exact Sciences is a spinoff company (of UW-Madison),” Gallagher said of one of the report’s sections. “That was a publicly traded company in Boston that Kevin Conroy and Maneesh Arora moved to Madison.”
In a statement, a UW-Madison spokesperson said that when Conroy, the Exact Sciences CEO, relocated the company to Madison from Massachusetts, that decision was “deeply connected to Madison’s life sciences ecosystem.”
“Conroy has cited UW–Madison’s top-ranked biochemistry program and the ability to recruit Ph.D.-level scientists as the primary reasons for the relocation,” UW-Madison spokesperson Rodee Schneider said in a statement.
Schneider also pointed to an article in which Conroy said research from a UW-Madison professor played a role in developing Cologuard, a test from Exact Sciences that’s used to detect colorectal cancer.
In calculating economic impact, the consultants looked at the university’s spending on operations as well as spending by students, faculty and staff and by visitors to the university. They also considered how much UW-Madison and its affiliates generated in local and state tax revenue. Additionally, the total impact includes full and-part time jobs at UW-Madison, along with “indirect” jobs, including people who work for a supply chain connected to the university.
The report’s release comes as the Trump administration is cutting federal research funding to universities and other institutions. It follows years of debate about how much funding state lawmakers should allocate to the state’s public university system.
In fiscal year 2025, UW-Madison got $609.4 million in revenue from the state.
“This net-positive return demonstrates that UW–Madison not only pays for its public investment but also significantly amplifies it, strengthening Wisconsin’s long-term economic resilience,” the report says.
Craig Thompson, UW-Madison’s vice chancellor of university relations, says the report shows that there’s a “great return on that investment” of tax dollars into UW-Madison.
“The economic impact that we had studied here really is substantial no matter where you live in the state,” he said.
The report was paid for by the Wisconsin Foundation & Alumni Association, a nonprofit that fundraises on behalf of UW-Madison.
Foundation spokesperson Tod Pritchard said the group was “pleased to support this work with private funds,” but declined to say how much the report cost.
Editor’s note: Wisconsin Public Radio is a service of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.
UW-Madison says it generated billions for state’s economy last year was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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