The UC Santa Cruz Chancellor’s Innovation Impact Awards Program (IIAP) recognizes and celebrates university faculty, researchers, staff, students, and community partners for their valuable contributions to innovations that have catalyzed transformative change and societal impact.
IIAP appreciates that innovation emerges from all academic disciplines and areas of study – the arts, engineering, humanities, physical and biological sciences, and social sciences – and broadly reflects the development of new or improved technologies and tools, products and services, artistic and creative works, systems and processes, and business models. Innovation impact occurs through implementation, adoption, and disruption that creates value, addresses unmet needs, advances social change, and improves lives.
Nominations for Innovator of the Year are being accepted through InfoReady through November 15, 2024.
The IIAP recognizes contributions and provides awards in four main categories:
- Innovator of the Year – recognizes a faculty member and associated project team, that may include staff and students, for their work on an innovation that, in the past 12 months, has resulted in a demonstrated societal impact or has reached a key milestone that positions the innovation for near-term societal impact. The lead faculty member’s lab or project receives a $10,000 research award to further advance their innovative work. Nominations for this category are collected through an open call and can be submitted by UC Santa Cruz faculty, staff, and students; no self-nominations will be accepted. Submitted nominations are evaluated by the IIAP Review Committee.
- Translation of the Year – recognizes an innovation with transformational potential and a lineage to UC Santa Cruz research that has significantly advanced on the pathway to commercialization, implementation, and adoption in the past 12 months through translation to practice and/or applied development and validation activities. The lab primarily responsible for the research that generated the subject innovation receives a $10,000 award to support innovative use-inspired and translational research. Nominations for this category are generated by the Innovation & Business Engagement Hub team.
- Lifetime Achievement in Innovation – recognizes a faculty member whose career accomplishments include innovations that have led to significant, long-term societal impact and who is an inspiration and positive influence for students and colleagues. The recipient receives an award of $5,000 to direct to a division, department, or lab of their choosing to support innovative research activities. Nominations for this category are provided by IIAP Review Committee members, informed by input from their respective divisions
- Community Changemaker – recognizes an external leader or organization in the Central Coast or Silicon Valley regions that has contributed significantly to driving regional economic prosperity through innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship, or support for growing the innovation ecosystem in close collaboration with the university. Nominations for this category are provided by the Innovation & Business Engagement Hub and Government & Community Relations teams.
Awardees are selected by the chancellor, campus provost and executive vice chancellor, and vice chancellor for research. The IIAP Review Committee engages in the Innovator of the Year evaluation process and Lifetime Achievement in Innovation nomination process. The committee is organized by the assistant vice chancellor for Innovation & Business Engagement and includes one representative from the Division of the Arts, Division of Humanities, Division of Physical & Biological Sciences Division of Social Sciences, Baskin School of Engineering and Office of Research.
IIAP is managed by the Innovation & Business Engagement Hub.