In 2006, Gov. Jim Doyle helped authorize $50 million in state funding for the University of Wisconsin’s planned Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. This funding by our state taxpayers was in part to further jump-start Wisconsin’s still fledgling stem cell research and development initiative.
During this same period Doyle also funded a $5 million plan to recruit and retain stem cell companies. Some $3 million has gone into Dr. James Thomson’s two companies Cellular Dynamics Inc. and Stem Cell Products Inc.
Steps were also taken to waive the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s royalty fees for companies that conduct stem cell research in Wisconsin.
All of this funding, mind you, without establishing any terms whatsoever for obtaining any returns on the taxpayers’ investment…..