Research Award Guidelines

THE COLLEGE OF NATURAL SCIENCES OUTSTANDING RESEARCH AWARDS 
Application Criteria and Guidelines

Deadline: February 7th, 2025

The CNS Outstanding Research Award recognizes excellence and honors faculty members who have made exceptional contributions in research. Typically, two awards will be given to CNS faculty (one early career, one more senior). Recipients receive a $1,000 honorarium. 

Eligibility

  • Tenure-system faculty members or research faculty who have not received a university or college award in recognition of their research accomplishments within the past seven years may be nominated.
  • Faculty are nominated by department heads/chairs or a suitable designee.

Award Criteria

  • Successful nominees will have demonstrated significant contributions to scholarship in the relevant field at the national or international level.
  • Contributions could be spread over a relatively long time period, such as a major portion of a career, or could be characterized by one or more “major breakthroughs” or “paradigm shifts.”

The Nomination Process

Use this form to submit a nomination (Nomination Form) You will be asked to provide:

  1. A nomination letter written and submitted by the department head/chair (or a suitable designee) of the faculty nominee (maximum of three pages). The letter should:
    • advocate and outline the case for how the nominee has made significant contributions to his or her area of research;
    • indicate the relationship to and history between the nominator and nominee.
  2. A summary of the nominee’s research prepared by the faculty member being nominated (maximum of two pages). The summary should be written for individuals who are not specialists in the nominee’s field, as the nomination materials will be reviewed by a multidisciplinary committee of faculty from across CNS.
  3. An abbreviated CV, made pertinent to the award criteria (maximum of five pages). The CV should include appointment and years of service in the College of Natural Sciences (or predecessors).
  4.  Up to three letters of support from colleagues and peers. At least one letter should be from an individual who is external to UMass (maximum of two pages each). The letters should:
    • demonstrate how the nominee meets the criteria for the award;
    • describe the relationship between the letter writer and the nominee.

Deadline

Nominations for the CNS Outstanding Research Award are due no later than 5 p.m. on February 7th, 2025.