UEDA Announces Category Leaders for 2022 Awards of Excellence

This week, the University Economic Development Association (UEDA) announced winners of its annual Awards of Excellence program during their annual Summit hosted in San Antonio, Texas.

Leading initiatives from across North America competed in a six-month process, including application, peer review, online presentations, and, ultimately, selection by attendees of the annual UEDA Summit as category leaders. The Awards of Excellence Program recognizes organizations who are transforming their campuses into engines of economic prosperity through leading edge initiatives in categories.

The expansion of the Awards to include the Engaged University and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion categories was a logical next step in evolution of this high-profile program,” said Tim Hindes, UEDA Executive Director. “By highlighting the critical work of our sector, we not only strive to recognize those initiatives that are making positive impacts on regional engagement, but foster conversations and collaborations to drive even further opportunity.”

Throughout the Awards of Excellence process, nominations are judged on the sustainability, replicability, originality, and impact of their programs or initiatives. Those receiving the top marks in these criteria advance through the process, culminating in recognition as the category leader by peers in attendance at the annual UEDA Summit. The 2022 Awards of Excellence category leaders are:

Talent

University of Kansas

Haskell Environmental Research Studies Institute (HERS)

Innovation

Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering

Joint Schools Institute for Research Technologies

Place

University of Hawaii Pacific Business Center Program

Together We can Go Far: Pacific Farmer Organizations as Drivers of Rural Economic Development

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

University of Kansas Center for Digital Inclusion

Evidence-based Technology Education for Women Transitioning from Incarceration

Engaged University

Towson University

The StarTUp

Judges’ Award Recipient

Tech Parks Arizona, University of Arizona Center for Innovation

Global Advantage Soft-Landing Program

UA Center for Innovation Executive Director, Eric Smith, accepts UEDA Judges' Choice Award

(University of Arizona Center for Innovation Executive Director, Eric Smith, accepting the Judges' Choice Award at the UEDA Summit)

How the Awards Process Works 

University project teams applied for the UEDA Awards of Excellence Program. Projects were reviewed and scored by an executive award committee and three or four project finalists were selected for each category. Project finalists presented their projects for participants of the annual UEDA Summit, where the audience of peers voted for projects that best exemplified the criteria for their category. Throughout the process, projects were judged on scalability, sustainability, impact originality, and the ability to be replicated. Awards were presented during a celebration that was held on October 11, 2022 in San Antonio, Texas.
 

The 2022 UEDA Summit was generously sponsored by Elsevier, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, The University of Texas at San Antonio, TrailBlaze Creative, Bowling Green State University Center for Regional Development, EcoMap, Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute, Kansas State University Innovation Partners, PNC Bank, Metopio, Georgia Southern University, Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, University of Wisconsin Madison, VelocityTX, Students + Startups, Bexar County Economic & Community Development, City of San Antonio Economic Development Department, East Stroudsburg University, The University of Texas at Dallas and EDO Marketplace.

 

Nominations for the 2023 Awards of Excellence program will begin in the spring of 2023 and are open to all competitive initiatives. Click here to learn more.

About UEDA
Established in 1976, the University Economic Development Association (UEDA) is the cornerstone membership organization representing higher education, private sector and community economic development stakeholders. UEDA works to expand economic opportunity in our communities by leveraging research, community resources, campus planning, talent development, and technology commercialization.  UEDA’s mission is to serve its members by enhancing members’ abilities to deliver economic development benefits through engagement with higher education.  http://www.universityeda.org