APLU Honors Three Institutions with Council on Research Awards

Washington, DC – The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) today recognized the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of New Hampshire with its Council on Research Awards for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Research, Public Impact Research, and Research Safety and Accountability, respectively.

“Congratulations to this year’s COR Award winners,” said Howard Gobstein, Senior Vice President for STEM Education and Research Policy and Advisor to the President at APLU. “We’re delighted to recognize their leadership and outstanding work done in advancing Public Impact Research, diversity and inclusion in university research, and enhancing safety.”

More information on the awardees is below:

University of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks won the Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in University Research Award for its Tamamta program, which works to transform the graduate education programs of two STEM fields – fisheries and marine sciences – that are chronically lacking student diversity within academia and the industry workforce. The program supports comprehensive graduate training that advances the co-production of science for 20 Indigenous and allied M.S. and Ph.D. fellows. The award recognizes a university’s office of research for implementing one or more novel approaches for improving the diversity and inclusivity of the research enterprise at the institution, reinforcing the research workforce pipeline. The Tamamta Program is supported by the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship and Navigating the New Arctic programs (Award # 2022190).

Georgia Institute of Technology
The Partnership for Inclusive Innovation (Partnership) at the Georgia Institute of Technology won the Public Impact Research Award. The Partnership is a regional public-private partnership collaborating across 34 universities (including HBCUs) and more than 45 multidisciplinary researchers to focus on community-driven needs such as increasing the use of data science at small and mid-sized farms to enhance production and improving emergency vehicle response times through the implementation of traffic signal pre-emption technology. The award recognizes multi-project research efforts focused on community and public impact.

University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire won the Safety and Accountability for Researchers Award for its research fieldwork safety program, which provides the university’s research community with comprehensive resources, training, and support required to conduct safe and inclusive fieldwork campaigns. UNH’s program encourages safe and successful fieldwork efforts for an increasingly diverse community of researchers and has a particular focus on issues of interpersonal violence, bias, and harassment prevention. The award recognizes a university that has implemented innovative policies, processes, and/or education and communication campaigns that promote and ensure the safety and personal accountability of researchers at all levels in academia and in all settings where research is conducted.