The school recently opened its own new Freshwater Sciences building on their nearby campus. UMW School of Freshwater Sciences is the only university in the US with a graduate-level degree in freshwater science. There, the building’s resident entrepreneurs will have access to the school’s laboratories and professors conducting research projects. The entire seventh floor of the World Water Center is the research and development realm of The University of Wisconsin’s School of Freshwater Sciences. The Water Council offices are on the fifth floor. Rexnord’s new corporate headquarters office is on the third floor. Start-up companies are located on the second floor. On other floors, the building has teleconferencing capabilities and an auditorium. There, UMW students can perform water tests. The first floor features the flow lab, sponsored by Badger Meter. The World Water Center building is focused on research and commercial development of water technologies and products.” “The Water Council,” said Perez, “is partnering with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), our state’s economic development agency. In September, Isaiah Perez, Communications and Development Associate at the World Water Council, guided me through the World Water Center’s headquarters building and defined the roles of each floor. We also are developing a program that will help introduce the small companies and their products to countries around the world.” Toward that end, we are planning an event for investment companies from across the US to visit Milwaukee. Milwaukee was selected as the prime location for water innovation.Īre there investment companies interested in water? Amhaus says: “The Water Council hopes to identify and help educate these potential investors about opportunities in the water sector. The Water Council’s partnership with the megabank includes a $225,000 (USD) grant from the bank’s Small Business Forward initiative, a national five-year, $30 million grant program intended to boost small business support networks that help grow enterprises in specific industries, including water. In addition to office and laboratory space in the Center, JPMorgan Chase can now provide these small firms access to seed money and valuable contacts to help them grow. Six new start-up companies will be in residence at the center in 2015 as part of the unique business incubator section that provides a first home for these water-related enterprises. Marquette University will also be taking space in the LEED-certified building. Industrial water giant, Rexnord, recently moved its corporate headquarters into the World Water Center, said Amhaus. Next April, we will break ground for a second building in the adjacent Reed Street Yard.” We now have some 40 companies occupying the building, which will be fully occupied by the end of this year. “At the Water Center, the Water Council has created the world’s first water technology accelerator-driving engagement between seasoned water professionals, researchers and entrepreneurs. In a recent interview, Dean Amhaus, President and CEO of The Water Council ( brought us up to date on progress at the Water Center, located in a 98,000-squarefoot, seven-story, brick-and-timber renovated structure. US EPA has recognized this geographic cluster of water companies and the region is recognized as a world hub for water research, education and economic development. ( WC&P featured the launch of the Center in October, 2013.) Why Wisconsin? The state boasts nearly 300 water companies, of which 150 are in the Milwaukee area. Milwaukee’s World Water Center, near Lake Michigan, is now in its second year as the fruit of a unique collaboration of Wisconsin academic, government and private business elements called The Water Council. At the same time, the world’s largest fresh water system has become a center for incubating new solutions to fresh water threats from invasive species to nutrient pollution. In a year when much national attention has focused on western states’ water shortages and drought, the Great Lakes region has water problems of its own.
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