Agricultural Research Innovation Award of Excellence
Sponsored by agInnovation
Nomination Guidelines and form for 2024

Purpose and Overview
The Agricultural Research Innovation Award of Excellence is given to researchers who strive in their research career to achieve benchmarks reflective of excellence. These benchmarks include, but are not limited to, demonstration of high impact of research within their discipline; a sustained record of scholarly productivity, including funding, publications, and patents; commitment to inclusivity; professional recognition of research excellence through local, regional, national, and/or international awards and honors; and demonstrated ability to inspire and lead effective collaborations and foster development of other scientists.

Who is Eligible?
The nominee must be an active researcher employed by a land-grant university with research representing a major portion of their effort for a minimum of five consecutive years as of the deadline of the nomination. Nominees must hold a valid Hatch or Evans-Allen project and/or participate on a multistate committee supported by Hatch Multistate or Evans-Allen funds at the time of nomination. Administrative professionals serving in agInnovation leadership positions are not eligible.

Honorees
Regional – Five awards are granted to regional competitors.
National – One awardee selected by the agInnovation Science and Technology Committee from the pool of the regional honorees.
agInnovation will provide regional honorees a four-year Silver-level membership with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a cash reward of $500. The National winner will receive an additional $500 cash award from agInnovation. The five honorees will be recognized during the Awards Program at the Annual Meeting of agInnovation in September. The national award winner will be invited to accept their additional cash award and an award plaque at the agInnovation annual meeting. Travel reimbursement for the national honoree will be provided by agInnovation. Summaries of each regional honoree’s excellent work will be released to the national news media and published in the agInnovation Awards Program as well as in the Food and Agricultural Sciences Excellence in College and University Awards Program: A Community of Scholars Honoring Excellence by APLU.

Process
Nominations open on February 1. Nominations may be submitted to the offices of respective regional associations by a nominee, supervisor, or peer and must have the written endorsement and verification of the nominee’s eligibility by the respective State Agricultural Experiment Station Director or 1890 Agricultural Research Director. Each agInnovation institution is permitted to submit one nomination per year.

Committees formed by the regional associations will use eligibility and criteria described below to score nominations in the first round. Winners of each regional competition will be automatically considered for the national award. Regional award winners will have an opportunity to revise their nomination based on feedback from the regional committees. The deadline for regional associations to submit nominations to the agInnovation Science and Technology Committee (STC) is 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on May 1.

The second and final round of scoring to select a national winner is conducted by the agInnovation Science and Technology Committee (STC) during June and July. All nominees and their nominators will be invited to attend the agInnovation Awards Ceremony at the end of September. Nominations are to be prepared to match the evaluation criteria indicated below, including a CV, not to exceed 10 pages, that highlights the evaluation criteria.

National award recipients are not eligible for renomination. Regional award honorees may be renominated for the national award after receiving the regional award. However, regional award honorees shall only receive one regional monetary award and one award plaque. Renominations for the national award may be revised before submission by the regional association on May 1. Regional associations shall determine which nominations will be advanced for the national award competition.

Evaluation Criteria

  • Demonstrated high impact of research, described by the following (1000 words or less). Weight – 50%
    • Relevance of the research to one or more of the agInnovation Grand Challenges (20%)
    • Explain the impact of the research program on US agriculture following the format of the national impacts database (landgrantimpacts.org) (20%).
    • Document the ability to inspire and lead effective collaborations and foster development of other scientists (10%).
  • Recognized excellence in one’s field of expertise as demonstrated by sustained funding and scholarly productivity; professional recognition, regional, national, and international invited presentations or speaking engagements (500 words or less). Weight – 40%
  • Demonstrated conveyance of cultural sensitivity and appreciation for inclusivity (300 words or less). Weight – 10%

Limitations

  • Incomplete nominations or nominations that exceed the word limits may not be reviewed.
  • No more than one nomination by an agInnovation member institution is considered for this award.
  • Only nominations submitted per the instructions provided by the deadline will be considered.

Timeline

  • December – Announcement sent to Directors and Administrators, by agInnovation Chair.
  • February 1 – Nominations due at Offices of the Executive Directors
  • March – Nominations reviewed by regional committees and recommendations submitted to regional associations.
  • March/April – Regional associations approve regional nominations at Spring meetings.
  • April – Regional associations provide feedback to nominator and nominee and provide an opportunity to revise their nomination prior to the final submission
  • May 1 – Associations submit final regional nominations to STC via the regional association supporting STC (pdf or word document)
  • June/July –STC Committee reviews regional nominations and selects the national winner.
  • July/August– STC Executive Vice-chair collects information from regional associations, secures photographs, and submits materials to agInnovation and APLU for booklet and program script.
  • September – National winner presentation at agInnovation meeting
  • November – National award announced at APLU Meeting

Please contact your regional association office if there are questions:
Lisa Williamson, ARD lmwilliamson1@ncat.edu
Chris Hamilton, North Central christina.hamilton@wisc.edu
David Leibovitz, Northeast david_leibovitz@uri.edu
Cindy Morley, South cmorley@uark.edu
Jennifer Horton, West jennifer.tippets@waaesd.org