Research Excellence Award

• UFV Type B faculty
• Sessional faculty with the equivalent of two years of teaching (accumulation of 14 sections)
• Students
• Alumni
• Staff
• University officers

For definitions of positions, please refer to the Senate Bylaws (p.11).

Eligible nominees must currently hold one of the following positions:

• All UFV Type B faculty who have completed their probational period
• Sessional faculty after the equivalent of two years of teaching (accumulation of 14 sections)

Research Excellence Award (REA) candidates are evaluated on the following four criteria. These are baseline expectations which the award recipient must meet.

Emphasis will be placed on work accomplished as a member of the UFV community, but achievements within the past five years that were achieved elsewhere will be considered. Nominees’ research/creative endeavours will be assessed based on the following four criteria, relative to the discipline. The following are descriptive attributes of the main criteria:

Originality/innovation

• Uniqueness or transformative nature of work
• Patents or monetary gains produced from work
• Awards, recognition from work
• Initiation of new programs

Academic impact/influence within the discipline

• Reception of work among peers within researcher’s discipline (reviews, stature of journals in which work was published, awards, etc.)
• Profile of outputs (journal rankings, etc.)
• Record in securing funding from external sources
• Numbers of citations from work
• Membership in discipline-specific groups
• Reviews of discipline-specific works

UFV/community impact/influence/scope of research/creative activity

• Impact/significance of the work for the UFV community, stakeholder groups, institutional profile, community at large, including Indigenization and Internationalization, etc.
• Public demonstrations, showings, lectures, presentations of work
• Utility/use of research/creative outputs to community groups
• Securing internal funding from UFV
• Membership in community/national/international groups
• Press statements regarding work

Mentorship/interface of research and teaching

• Role and/or training for students in relation to work or while conducting work in research
• Role for students in conduct of faculty research
• Incorporation of creativity/research achievement/ knowledge of research into the learning environment and pedagogy
• Evidence of student research accomplishments and testimonials

The nomination package consists of all of the following:

1. A letter of nomination outlining how the nominee meets the criteria for the Research Excellence Award (maximum 1,000 words):
   1. The nominator is responsible for describing the nominee's work in relation to their discipline in language which the multidisciplinary committee adjudicating this award can comprehend.
   2. This letter lays out the broader research/creative program of the nominee over the previous five years.
   3. It also highlights any outstanding creative or research achievement[s] in that same period. Nominators provide a description of the nominee’s research / creative endeavor, emphasizing how it meets the four criteria and related descriptive attributes, as outlined in the Evaluation Criteria.  The researcher’s role in any joint/multi-disciplinary projects are clearly outlined.
2. A nominator form, signed by the nominator, indicating their eligibility type.
3. Exactly five letters of support are included (500 words maximum). The nominator is responsible for soliciting letters of support from inside and outside the UFV community. The nominee may suggest a list of colleagues from whom it would be suitable to solicit letters of support:
   1. Two letters from recognized scholars (from outside UFV) specializing in a similar field of research/creative endeavour address the quality and significance of the nominee's work in the field.
   2. Three additional letters can be from recognized scholars but my also come from non-academic sources who have a connection to, and comprehension of, the research/creative activity being nominated (i.e. government agencies, industry, community partners), or a former/current student who has experienced the nominees’ incorporation of research into the classroom.
   3. Nominators do not submit a letter of support. They are asked to advise letter writers to address one or more of the selection criteria and provide the criteria to the letter writers.

4. Instructions for nominators and letter writers:

• The committee only considers information included in the nomination package. Therefore, regarding impact, the committee needs to understand how specific outputs (e.g. publications, policy/community-relevant reports) or forms of mentorship have been received, used by, and/or changed the research community or non-academic sectors. Writers speak to overall impact and highlight no more than the 3 most impactful works.
• If relevant, explain if/how the nominee has shown leadership in any of these domains.
• Consider “the value and impact of all research outputs (including datasets and software) in addition to research publications and consider a broad range of impact measures including qualitative indicators of research impact, such as influence on policy and practice” (DORA, 2025).

5. A full and current curriculum vitae of the nominee, highlighting their research/creative productivity over the previous five years. Also note details for grants/outputs within the last 5 years, including dollar values, whether determined through a competitive process and the nominee’s role (e.g. Principal Investigator, co-PI, or collaborator.

6. A consent form signed by the nominee agreeing to be nominated.

The Research Excellence Award (REA) selection committee, a subcommittee of the Senate Research Committee, is responsible for receiving nominations and recommending a recipient for the award. The Senate Awards and Honours Committee reviews the documentation to ensure procedural requirements have been met, before recommending the recipient to Senate for approval.‌