Research

Call for Nominations RI-stacked-horz-dept_only-teal-rgb.png

Research Achievement Awards

  • Rising Research Excellence Award

  • Research Collaboration Award

AY22 RAA Recipients

AY23 Applications: Nominate here!

  • Open - November 15, 2022
  • Close - January 31, 2023

Introduction

Purpose

The UNCW research achievement awards aim to recognize faculty for their excellence in research, innovation, and scholarship leading to the advancement of knowledge in their own fields, discoveries with significant impact on society, and the engagement of students in the process. In addition to recognizing research productivity and impact on their field, these awards also consider the impact on UNCW students. These awards complement other faculty achievement awards in the colleges and university-wide.

Eligibility

All UNCW faculty (as defined in the UNCW Faculty Handbook, Chapter III, Section B, Article 1) are eligible for nomination by their colleagues for these awards.

Awards

Awardees receive a certificate and are provided internal funds to support their research, scholarship, and related professional development. These funds will be transferred to the awardee’s home department and available for use for up to 2 years. 

Awards Categories and Criteria

Rising Research Excellence Award

This award recognizes faculty who are generating a substantial volume of high-quality research, innovation, scholarship, and creative work, and who are emerging as leaders in their fields as recognized by their peers. For this award, a candidate should not be more than 10 years beyond receipt of their terminal degree in the year they are nominated.

Number of Awards: Typically 4 recipients to receive $2,500 each to support research related activities

Recognizing that researchers may have lapses in their research or research training, or have experienced periods of less than full-time effort, UNCW will consider requests to extend the eligibility for reasons that can include: medical concerns, disability, family care responsibilities, natural disasters, and active duty military service, determined on a case by case basis at the sole discretion of the Associate Provost for Research and Innovation.

Research Collaboration Award

Teamwork and collaboration are essential to addressing large, complex challenges, and often the most important opportunities. This award recognizes a team of faculty researchers (3 or more UNCW faculty) who have collectively made unique and significant contributions through their research collaboration. The award also recognizes innovative approaches to the process of research collaborations by a team of researchers.

Number of Awards: One $5,000 award to support the collective research related activities

Nomination Process

All nomination packages for the research awards should include the following:

  1. Nomination Letter (up to 2 pages): This letter should introduce the nominee to the review committee and provide an assessment of excellence and supporting documentation for consideration by the review committee. For the Research Collaboration Award, only one nomination letter that speaks to the research team as a whole is needed.
  2. One External Letter of Support (up to 2 pages): This letter is required for the Research Excellence Award, and optional for the Research Collaboration Award.
  3. Nominee’s Curriculum Vitae (2 page maximum): An abbreviated 2-page CV that speaks to the stated criteria is required. In the case of the Research Collaboration Award, each team member should provide their individual CV.
  4. Mentor Matrix: Fill out the template with student engagement activity information.

Complete nomination packages - including letters of support,  CVs, and the mentor matrix - are due January 31, 2023. All application materials will be submitted through InfoReady, which includes multiple routing steps. Please take this into consideration when submitting the nomination and all subsequent materials.

The nomination packages will be reviewed by an evaluation committee appointed by the Associate Provost for Research and Innovation in consultation with the Faculty Senate Research Committee. Awards will be announced in April.

Evaluation Metrics

Rising Research Excellence Award

The evaluation committee will consider the following success metrics.

Quantity, quality, and impact of research, scholarly, or creative work on a field of study:

  • Number of peer-reviewed publications; measure of quality based on journals, conference publications, awards, citation counts/impact factors, or other measures of impact as appropriate
  • Number of scholarly books published; measure of quality based on publisher, awards, reviews, citation counts/impact factors, or other measures of impact as appropriate
  • Number of textbooks published; measure of quality based on publisher, awards, or other measures of impact as appropriate
  • Number of exhibitions, performances, or publications of creative work; measure of quality based on awards, reviews, or other measures of impact as appropriate
  • Number of peer-reviewed published computing applications, software, or games; measure of quality based on publisher, breadth of use, awards, reviews or other measures of impact as appropriate
  • Number of judged national or international competition award winners; measure of quality is reputation of competition, depth of competition, reviews or other measures of impact as appropriate
  • Impact of intellectual property as exhibited by the number and impact of disclosures, patents granted, licenses, and/or revenues resulting from commercialization of intellectual property or other measures as appropriate
  • Other external recognition or validation of scholarly or creative work, as demonstrated through membership on prestigious committees, editorships, professional society awards, or other external validation
  • Where applicable, the amount and sources of funded research

Impact of research, scholarship, and creative work on students:

  • Quantity of student engagement, based on the number of students (undergraduate and graduate) involved in scholarly or creative works
  • Quality of student engagement, including whether students were observers, contributors, co-authors, or participants in exhibitions, associated with the creation or dissemination of the scholarly work
  • Impact of student engagement, through qualitative presentation of how scholarly and creative work enhanced students' learning or affected students' courses of study or career pathways

Research Collaboration Award

The evaluation committee will consider criteria for the quantity, quality, and impact of research, scholarly, and creative work on a field of study and students for this award similar to the Rising Research Excellence award. The primary difference is the team collaboration, and thus the evaluation will focus on the work generated as a result of the collaboration as indicated by the nominees on their CVs.  

Inaugural RAA Recipients

Rising Research Excellence Award

  • April Braswell, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing
  • Xaver Neumeyer, Assistant Professor, Department of Management
  • Richard Pond, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
  • Michael Tift, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology and Marine Biology
  • Rachael Urbanek, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences

Research Collaboration Award

  • Kristen DeVall, Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology
  • Christina Lanier, Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology
  • Sally MacKain, Professor, Department of Psychology
  • Jeanne Persuit, Professor, Department of Communication Studies
  • Ronald Vetter, Professor, Department of Computer Science