UCD VIA Awards

Page updated 18 November 2022

Nominations period closed

(Closed 7 November 2022)

The UCD VIA (values in action) Awards recognise colleagues who bring our values of Collegiality, Creativity, Diversity, Engagement, Excellence and Integrity to life.

• Do you know an individual or team who through their work or voluntary initiatives associated with UCD bring the University Values to life?
• Would you like to have colleagues recognised for their efforts?

You are invited to nominate UCD employees or teams/committees of employees who in your opinion have excelled in bring our values to life, both in response to COVID-19 and elsewhere in the University community.

What will the UCD VIA Awards celebrate?

Individuals or teams/committees who;

• act as ambassadors for the UCD Values through their daily work,
• establish initiatives that bring the UCD Values to life,
• lead voluntary initiatives associated with the UCD Community, demonstrating the University Values in action.

The awards are open to all employees of UCD (full-time, part-time, permanent or temporary) who have worked in UCD for at least 2 years at the time of the nomination. They may be nominated by any member of the UCD community (employees, students, those working on campus or alumni).

Nomination Criteria

Employees of UCD (full-time, part-time, permanent or temporary) who have worked in UCD for at least 2 years at the time of the nomination may be nominated.

Employees may not self-nominate. Members of a committee / team may not nominate their own committee / team (someone outside the team will need to do this).

Individuals or teams/committees may be nominated.

Nominators (any member of the UCD Community – employee, student, others working on campus) may only nominate an individual/team/committee once but may nominate more than one individual/team/committee.

Individuals/teams/committees who have previously won an award may not be nominated for the same initiative(s) for 3 years subsequently in the interests of promoting inclusivity and participation.

An individual or team/committee must consent to being nominated and it is the responsibility of the nominator to confirm this has been obtained.

Individuals will only be awarded once in the same year, except where they are also a member of a team/committee that is being awarded under another nomination.

Only electronic submissions by the specified closing date will be accepted.

Award Criteria

Nominations will be scored against the criteria outlined below as evidenced in the applications submitted by the nominator.  

• The scoring process will remain confidential and the Chair of the Employee Engagement Network will also act as the chair of the sub-committee scoring the applications
• All decisions of the sub-group are final and not open to appeal
• The following evaluation criteria will be used:
  • Tell - demonstrate how the nominee/team/committee brings the UCD Values to life through their work or initiatives  
  • Connect – link their work/initiative(s) to a UCD Value(s)
  • Share the Impact - as measured through scale, resources/budget available, longevity and contribution to achieving University strategic objectives

Nomination Guidelines

The assessment is an evidenced based process. Applications will be made via the official nomination form.

Tell

This section should provide an example or examples of how the nominee/team/committee brings the UCD Values to life through their work or initiatives. This can either be through their work which is viewed as outstanding or other voluntary initiatives associated with UCD, which help to bring the identified UCD Value or Values to life.

Connect

This section should connect the work/initiatives outlined to a specific UCD value(s). It is not necessary to list and give examples for all six UCD Values, just those most strongly associated with the nominee/team

Impact

This section should outline the impact bringing the chosen Value or Values to life has had on the UCD community in terms of scale, resources available, longevity and contribution to the university’s objectives. 

• Detail the scale of the impact the nominee/team/committee has had on the UCD community regionally/nationally/internationally in bringing the identified Value(s) to life (include measurement where possible e.g. number of people involved, funds raised etc)
• Indicate if the activity is part of the nominee’s role with associated resources/budget or something that is voluntary, unrelated to their role with limited resources/budget available
• Quantify the longevity of the impact arising from the nominee’s actions
• Describe how the nominee(s) has/have contributed to achieving University objectives

Scoring process

Applications are assessed individually and ranked from highest to lowest. Those ranking highest are awarded all with equal merit.