WCEPS

About WCEPS

Mission: Extend the impact of UW's educational innovations to additional students and teachers and endow further research and development.

Four people sit around a wooden table with glasses of water and pen and paper, discussing something together. There are plants near the table, and the walls of the room are painted yellow.

What we Do

The Wisconsin Center for Education Products & Services is working to impact education around the world. WCEPS was founded November 23rd, 2010 by friends of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The first full time employee came on board June of 2011. We meet a growing demand for bringing education research and development to the general public through our partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a world-class research institution. UW-Madison has a long history in the field of education, from research to creating innovative educational tools. Whether it's testing instruments, curricular materials or educational software, WCEPS delivers these copyrightable products to educators and students around the world to help improve education.

Guiding Principal

  • Deliver products and services that help educators and learners. If products enhance teaching and learning revenue will be generated from them.
  • Delight all clients. WCEPS's clients are the students who benefit from the materials, the educators who purchase from us, and the UW creators who disseminate through us. We need to earn positive word of mouth.
  • Focus on the largest opportunities. With limited resources, we focus on intellectual property that will allow WCEPS to have sustainable, meaningful impact on the largest number of students and teachers.
  • Respect all ideas and respond thoughtfully to all potential collaborators. WCEPS can't take on every great educational innovation that deserves to go to market. We'll tell potential collaborators what we're working on, respond quickly to their inquiries, and provide a brief business plan. If conditions change and they want to work with WCEPS in the future, we'll be open to it.
  • Match rigorous research with rigorous market analysis. The market and financial research supporting the delivery of new products and services to market must match the rigor of the educational research.
  • Be honest and open about strengths and weaknesses. Transparency helps us maximize strengths and improve upon weaknesses. Each week, our goal is to get 1% better at our jobs.

The process

Below is a list of the typical steps to commercialize research from the university of Wisconsin-Madison, including specific issues to consider. Some of these steps may not be relevant to your situation, or ther may be additional steps or issues. WCEPS can assit you at every level of this process, and works closely with content creators to find the most efficient and effective way to disseminate your product or service.