Research and Innovation

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation is seeking nominations for individuals or research teams for the 2024 Sustainability Awards. This award program aims to recognize individuals whose contributions deepen our culture of sustainability across a range of institutional activities. The OVPRI sponsors two of the Sustainability Awards: one for research and scholarship, and one for innovation. Award recipients will receive $500 in research funds ($1000 will be provided to a team), and will also be featured in a video produced by the Office of Sustainability.  

The nomination should contain a one-paragraph description of the nominee’s contributions to sustainability in research and scholarship or innovation, along with the nominee’s CV.  If nominating a research team, please include CVs for all faculty team members.  Preference is given to interdisciplinary environmental projects for the research and scholarship award. 

Please submit nominations (self-nominations are welcome and encouraged) via the online form by Tuesday, February 20, 2024. 

Excellence in Teaching

The Teaching Engagement Program invites applications for the Excellence in Teaching Award. This award is open to career and tenure-related faculty. Candidates for this award have developed pedagogy and curriculum that reinforce and advance principles of sustainability through course design and instruction. This award celebrates faculty who have exhibited excellence in the following two areas:

Sustainability – Demonstration of committed engagement with principles of sustainability– environmental sustainability, social justice and equity, socially responsible economics-through course content and student applications to real-world problems or contexts.

Pedagogy – Demonstration of teaching excellence through teaching practices that are inclusive, engaged, and research-led.

TO NOMINATE (including self-nominations): 

Please send faculty member’s name, applicable course syllabus, and a one-page letter of support that addresses the evaluation criteria indicated below to Office of Sustainability assistant director Sarah Stoeckl, sstoeckl@uoregon.edu, by noon on Friday, February 23rd. The recipient will be featured in a video about their teaching and honored at the annual UO Sustainability Awards Dinner in May. The event is designed to showcase University of Oregon’s depth and breadth in sustainability programming as well as give those leading the charge an opportunity to be recognized.  It features a cash bar, locally-grown food and entertainment. It is attended by approximately 75 people each year, including several university leaders. 

University Sustainability Awards – Excellence in Teaching Criteria

The review committee will rank each candidate’s file on a 1-5 scale in the following criteria areas:

• Sustainability
  • To what extent does the course content engage with one or more of the three areas of sustainability – environmental sustainability, social justice and equity, socially responsible economics? [1-5]
  • How essential are the sustainability components to the course content? [1-5]
  • How deeply are students able to apply their intellectual understanding of sustainability to real-world problems or contexts? [1-5]
• Pedagogy

(Please refer to the principles and example practices of teaching excellence found here.)

•  
  • To what extent does the instructor use practices of inclusive teaching? [1-5]
  • To what extent is the instructor committed to engaged teaching—reflective practice, teaching development, and building a teaching community? [1-5]
  • To what extent does the instructor mentor students in research or other scholarly work? [1-5]
  • To what extent does the instructor use evidence-based practices about how students learn?  [1-5]
  • To what extent is the instructor’s teaching informed by state-of-the-field research on  sustainability, environmental studies, climate sciences, etc.? [1-5]

Sustainable Campus

The Office of the Vice President for Finance and Administration invites nominations for the Sustainable Campus award.  This award recognizes an employee or team for the introduction of a sustainability best practice into their department or unit’s day-to-day work or their service to campus. The Office of Sustainability coordinates these awards and hosts the annual awards ceremony and dinner in May.

For the purpose of these awards, the definition of "sustainability" is expansive rather than prescriptive. The “three-legged stool” metaphor may be helpful, which often translates to “environment, equity, economy” or “planet, people, profits.” 

Please nominate yourself or others for this award. All UO people/units who provide operational or administrative work or service to University of Oregon are eligible. Nominations are due by 5pm, Thursday February 22nd.