Wisconsin Initiative on National Security
In Service to the Nation
Consistent with the Wisconsin Idea, the Wisconsin Initiative on National Security mobilizes the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s research enterprise, from quantum science to fusion energy to health security, to meet the nation’s most pressing security challenges.
Start Here
I’m a Researcher
For Researchers
From your first proposal to your tenth: the funding landscape, the programs, the process, and the people who can help.
I’m a Student
For Students
Scholarships, internships, certificates, and the student community connecting Wisconsin talent to the mission.
I’m a Mission Partner
For Partners
One front door to the university’s research, facilities, and talent pipeline for defense, intelligence, and industry mission partners.
Research in Service to the Nation
For more than 175 years, UW–Madison has pursued knowledge that improves lives far beyond the borders of campus. The Wisconsin Initiative on National Security (WINS) applies that tradition to national security, connecting the university’s researchers, facilities, and discoveries with the mission partners — national security customers across government, industry, and non-profits — who need them.
Housed in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) and established with the support of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), WINS is the front door to dual-use national security research and partnership at UW–Madison.
The Dual-Use Dividend
GPS began as a military navigation system and now guides everything from farm equipment to family road trips. The internet grew from a defense research network. Satellite weather forecasting, a field Wisconsin helped invent, serves both military operations and the morning commute.
National security research is one of the great engines of civilian progress.
That is the dual-use dividend: the same research that keeps the nation secure powers its economy, improves daily life, and creates the industries of the future. Fusion research promises clean energy for everyone. Quantum science will transform medicine and materials. Brain health research serves both service members and civilians. Cybersecurity research protects hospitals, banks, and power grids as surely as military networks. National security research is public-interest research.
Research that Serves
Why WINS
The World
Strategic competition is now a technology competition. The nation’s security depends on leadership in AI, quantum science, fusion energy, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing — fields where universities do the foundational work and train the people.
The University
UW–Madison is a leading American research university, with annual research expenditures of $2 billion and signature research strengths that apply directly to the country’s most pressing security needs, including quantum, fusion, and health.
The Initiative
WINS gives mission partners a place to start, gives researchers a champion for their work’s national impact, and gives Wisconsin a seat at the table as the nation determines the next generation of national security science & technology innovations.
National Security, Broadly Understood
National security is not a narrow category of research; it is a lens on nearly everything a great university does. The technologies that keep the nation secure are overwhelmingly dual-use: the same discoveries that protect the country power its economy, improve daily life, and create the industries of the future.
Energy security is national security.
Resilient grids, advanced nuclear, and the pursuit of fusion power the mission — and the economy.
Food security is national security.
Agricultural science, supply chain resilience, and biosecurity protect what the nation eats — a strength Wisconsin has cultivated for generations.
Cybersecurity is national security.
Every system the country depends on — water, power, finance, health care — runs on software someone must defend.
Health security is national security.
Pandemic preparedness, biomanufacturing, and brain health protect the force and the public alike.
Signature Strengths
Quantum
World-class research in quantum computing, sensing, and networking: foundational technologies for the next era of secure communication and computation.
Fusion
Decades of leadership in plasma science and fusion engineering, from strategic energy to the plasma expertise underpinning next-generation defense technologies.
Health
From biosecurity and pandemic preparedness to neuroscience, brain health, prosthetics, and human performance: protecting the health of service members and the nation.
Research Domains
Enduring Wisconsin strengths, aligned to the missions that need them, including the Department of Defense’s Critical Technology Areas (CTAs) and the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission. Learn more about our research areas and the mission areas they support.
AI & Data Science
Machine learning and data science at scale, anchored by the College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence and campus-wide strengths in statistics and computation.
Autonomy
Robotics, human-machine teaming, and autonomous systems on land, air, and water, with federally designated proving grounds to test them.
Cybersecurity
An NSA-designated National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Research, advancing systems security, cryptography, and the defense of critical infrastructure.
Electromagnetic Spectrum & Microelectronics
Radar, communications, electronic warfare, directed energy, and the microelectronics that make them possible, mastery of the contested spectrum.
Space & Earth Sensing
Satellite, airborne, and ground-based instruments enabling weather forecasting, environmental intelligence, and sensing the world over.
Materials & Advanced Manufacturing
Materials for extreme environments: refractory alloys, coatings, claddings, plus additive manufacturing and accelerated materials discovery.
Nuclear & Energy Systems
Longstanding leadership in fission and fusion, advanced reactor materials, and the grid and power systems that keep installations and industry running.
Biotechnology & Biomanufacturing
Bioprocess engineering, cell manufacturing, and clinical biomanufacturing capability: living systems as a strategic industrial base.
Food & Agriculture Security
Food safety, agricultural biosecurity, and the science of feeding the nation: a land-grant mission since the university’s founding.
Work with UW–Madison
Whether you are a mission partner, a company, or a researcher, WINS is your front door to national security research and collaboration at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.