INNOVATE Awards

The purpose of the INNOVATE Awards is to inspire faculty research, entrepreneurship and creative activity that will lead to publication in a peer review journal or a creative event, external research funding or Intellectual Property. The INNOVATE Awards were created in 2011 by Dr. Helena Wisniewski, Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies, to stimulate new research and IP. For a list of current and previous award winners, click here.

_{Chancellor Tom Case, Provost Bear Baker and Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies Dr. Helena Wisniewski
with the 2013 INNOVATE Award winners.}

Accomplishments & Benefits

2012 Awards

• Established by the Vice Provost for Research in December 2011 and she acquired $200,000 in internal funding.
• Received 40 proposals.
• Funded 13 proposals in areas including engineering, sciences and arts/humanities.
  

Accomplishments of 2012

• 11 proposals submitted for external funding, some still under review, with awards totaling over $350,000 in external funding to date.
• Six submissions to peer review journals in process.
• Four invention disclosures and three evolved into patents pending.
• Nine presentations at international conferences.
  

2013 Awards

• Received an additional $200,000 in internal funding for the INNOVATE Awards.
  
• Increase in the diversity of areas and disciplines, including the sciences, engineering, economics, theatre and dance, English and construction management.
• More awards are interdisciplinary.
• Received proposals from all UAA colleges and schools.

Individual Highlights

Dr. Jill Flanders Crosby One month after receipt of an INNOVATE Award in 2013, Dr. Jill Flanders Crosby, professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance, received funding from a private donor that equals about a 38% return on investment within a month.
Don Reardon, M.F.A. Don Reardon, assistant professor in the Community and Technical College, was awarded a "Scholar in Residence" at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts. The residency allowed Professor Reardon to research whale archives for his novel, Heart of a Whale. He received an INNOVATE Award in 2012.