OSU Engagement Awards of Excellence

As part of OSU's commitment to being a fully engaged university, the OSU Engagement Awards of Excellence were created to recognize faculty, staff, and community partners for their efforts to develop programs or projects that adhere to the principles of community engagement and engaged scholarship. This includes reciprocal and mutually beneficial outcomes that address key societal issues and contribute to the inclusive prosperity of OSU’s internal and external stakeholders.

The awards portal is now open (see portal links below). The submission deadline is 11:59 PM, July 31, 2025.

PLEASE NOTE: The winner of the Extension and Engagement Award will be announced at University Day in September 2025. Winners of the Community Engaged Scholarship Team and OSU-Community Partnership Engagement awards will be announced at the OSU Engagement Conference on December 4, 2025.

Awards are sponsored by the Division of Extension and Engagement, with support from the Office of the Provost.

Award categories

Extension and Engagement Award

The Extension and Engagement Award recognizes a faculty member's significant and meritorious work which enhances reciprocal learning with our students, partners and/or stakeholders through outreach and engagement activities. The recipient receives a certificate and $2,000 to support ongoing engagement work.

List of Previous Recipients

Eligibility:

  • Tenured, tenure-track, clinical track, fixed-term and professional faculty

Award Criteria

Selection criteria include:

  1. Unusual effort to ensure the quality of the outreach and engagement experiences;
  2. High standards for the rigor and currency of program content and the level of learner performance and reciprocal university learning;
  3. Direct and significant potential for impact upon and involvement with external learners, OSU students, and the University itself;
  4. Original and scholarly contributions about the field of outreach and engagement;
  5. Evidence that the candidate's scholarly contributions have enhanced the effectiveness in extending Oregon State University to the people of Oregon and/or improving the capabilities of the university

Click here to apply

Community Engaged Scholarship Team Award

Emphasizes the composition and roles of a multi-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary team relative to:

  • The overall project
  • Collective impact to targeted communities
  • Novel contributions to relevant academic disciplines.

Multi-institutional teams are also encouraged to apply, if an OSU faculty is the lead applicant.

Prize: Recipient receives a plaque and $2,000 to support ongoing engagement work.

Eligibility: Transdisciplinary and/or multi-institutional teams of tenured, tenure-track, clinical track, fixed-term (including professors of practice), and professional faculty. It may also include non-academic staff/units and key community* partners that made significant contributions to the team’s engagement outcomes and impacts.

Submissions are reviewed according to the following criteria.

  1. Significance of the engagement partnership
  2. Relationship and reciprocity between the community and university
  3. Impact on community partners
  4. Impact on university partners
  5. Lessons learned and best practices
  6. Future plans
  7. Appendix of supporting materials
Click here to apply

OSU-Community Partnership Engagement Award

Emphasizes the roles and responsibilities of community partner(s) relative to:

  • The overall project
  • The level and quality of their involvement in all stages from ideation to evaluation
  • Communication of impacts.

OSU team members can be inter- or multi-disciplinary.

Prize: Recipient receives a plaque and $2,000 to support ongoing engagement work.

Eligibility: Transdisciplinary and/or multi-institutional teams of tenured, tenure-track, clinical track, fixed-term (including professors of practice), and professional faculty. It may also include non-academic staff/units and key community* partners that made significant contributions to the team’s engagement outcomes and impacts.

Submissions are reviewed according to the following criteria.

  1. Significance of the engagement partnership
  2. Relationship and reciprocity between the community and university
  3. Impact on community partners
  4. Impact on university partners
  5. Lessons learned and best practices
  6. Future plans
  7. Appendix of supporting materials
Click here to apply

*A community partner can be an individual, group, community, or organization.