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Submission Categories, Selection Process and Judging Criteria

Submission Categories

Submitted proposals should address innovations in one of the following five categories:

  • Research Excellence
  • Academic Distinction
  • Student Success
  • General Services and Support
  • Organization Sustainability

Submission and Selection Process

  • Team submissions will submitted via webform and vetted by a peer screening committee to identify 8-10 finalists based on the established criteria. All team members must be staff; student employees are not eligible to participate.
  • Finalists will submit a videotaped 2 to 3 minute presentations on their proposal.
  • Finalist presentations will be made available to the campus community. Staff, faculty and students will be invited to view and comment on the submissions.
  • Winners will be determined from a Chancellor-appointed judging panel.

Each submission will be judged on three criteria:

  • Creativity and Innovation The model demonstrates innovative thinking, a deep understanding of the barriers to organizational change, and addresses a clear opportunity for advancing an entrepreneurial or socially impactful mindset, skillset, and culture for UC Merced.
     
  • Impact: The innovation has a clear contribution to the campus and has the potential of providing a track record of results and success. This innovation, 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: The innovation may be easily adapted without losing quality. The innovation should be able to spread with relative ease. Replication may be across different units, departments, divisions, and other UC campuses.
     
  • Cost Feasibility: The overall cost of the planned innovation must be feasible for the campus to undertake within a reasonable period of time.