The University of Nebraska System’s President’s Excellence Awards offer an opportunity to celebrate the dedication, innovation and impact of colleagues across the NU system.
These awards are the highest form of recognition to celebrate success in the classroom, the laboratory and in the NU campus and broader communities — from research and creative activity to teaching and student outcomes.
Nominations are due by Jan. 9 for the awards.
Individual winners are awarded $10,000 each, a presidential medallion and an engraved plaque. The departmental or team winner receives $25,000 to support its instructional mission. All winners, who are chosen by panels of their peers, will be honored at the summer Board of Regents meeting in 2026.
Nomination criteria and instructions are available on the President’s Excellence Awards webpage.
- Faculty IP Innovation and Commercialization Award (FIPICA): Honors members of the University of Nebraska faculty who have developed and nurtured new intellectual property from concept to licensing/startup business.
- Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Award (ORCA): Honors members of the University of Nebraska faculty who have conducted outstanding research or creative activity of national/international significance.
- Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award (OTICA): Honors members of the University of Nebraska faculty who have developed meritorious and sustained records of excellence in teaching and creativity related to teaching.
- Innovation, Development and Engagement Award (IDEA): Honors members of the University of Nebraska faculty who have extended their academic expertise beyond the boundaries of the University in ways that have enriched the broader community.
- Innovations in Student Success Award (ISSA): Honors a faculty-led team effort that has made a unique and significant contribution to improving undergraduate six-year graduation rates. This award honors specific and successful innovations designed to improve retention and graduation rates among students the unit serves in a major, within a school, within a college, or throughout a campus.
- University-wide Departmental Teaching Award (UDTA): Honors a department/unit at the University of Nebraska which has outstanding esprit de corps in its dedication to the education of students at the undergraduate, graduate or professional levels.