Colleagues,
From its founding, UC Merced has distinguished itself as a center for innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. These qualities are as important today as they were at the beginning. We face challenges that will require us to be a leader among UC campuses, if not national higher education, in organizational excellence, customer service, process efficiencies and a positive work environment.
Therefore, it gives me great pleasure to announce a new initiative that recognizes and rewards innovation among UC Merced staff. The Chancellor’s Innovation Awards is a program designed to provide well-deserved recognition to individuals who come up with transformative ideas and to reinforce the value of innovation to the entire campus community.
The initiative’s launch coincides with in-depth work related to the strategic workforce plan that is underway. The intent is to encourage staff members to bring innovative approaches to the workforce planning effort.
The awards include the following financial incentives:
- One 1st place prize of $5,000
- One 2nd place prize of $2,500
- One 3rd place prize of $1,000
- Five honorable mentions of $500
The winners also will be invited to dinner at University House to discuss their innovations with campus leadership and me to develop strategies for implementation.
We are looking for proposals that address innovations in one of the following four categories:
- Organizational structures
- Process improvements
- Customer service
- Improved work environment
Submitted proposals can be new ideas or those that have already been piloted in individual units. Each submission will be judged on four criteria:
- Creativity - the idea demonstrates innovative thinking, a deep understanding of the levers and barriers to organizational change and addresses a clear opportunity for advancing an entrepreneurial or socially impactful mindset, skillset and culture for UC Merced;
- Impact – it shows a clear contribution to the campus and has the potential of providing a track record of results and success. The idea, if scaled, has potential to be transformative for the campus and represents a new best practice for the University of California system;
- Replication and Scale – it can be easily adapted without losing quality and able to spread with relative ease while increasing efficiency and impact with every replication. Replication may be across different units, departments, divisions and other UC campuses;
- Maturity – potential exists for refinement and iteration of the idea over time.
The vice chancellor for Business and Administrative Services, in partnership with Staff Assembly, has developed a submission template for proposals. Submissions can be made by individuals or by teams. Finalists will be invited to submit a presentation (PowerPoint or a two to three minute video) about their proposal. Those presentations will be made available to the campus community via an internal communication channel. Faculty, students and staff will be invited to view the presentations and vote on the submissions.
More information about the initiative, submission process and voting is posted on the Office of the Chancellor website. Questions may be directed to innovationawards@ucmerced.edu.
I am excited to see the concepts that our talented and creative staff members will develop in the coming weeks. It is my hope that the Chancellor’s Innovation Awards inspire you to create new ideas that drive innovation and invent new and more effective ways of working at UC Merced.
Best regards,
Dorothy Leland
Chancellor
