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UCD VIA Awards

Recognising colleagues who bring the University’s values to life

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Page updated 19 January 2026

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

The VIA's will 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.

Nominations for this year's awards have closed and we have received over 80 nominations. More to follow.

VIA Nomination Form 2026 Word | 126KB

Nominations can be made under one of the 7 categories that reflect UCD's strategic priorities:

UCD Student Experience

A vibrant and supportive community is central to optimising the holistic experience, wellbeing and sense of belonging of UCD students. This category will recognise those who bring the UCD values to life through providing exceptional support and innovative enhancements to the student experience.

Driving Sustainability

Sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs while living within planetary boundaries. It is enshrined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals and encompasses challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss, hunger, poverty, health and inequality. This category will celebrate contributions to UCD's mission to be a thought and action leader of transformational change for sustainability through interdisciplinary collaboration, strong external partnerships and the integration of research, education and operations.

Research Culture

Research Culture is created by the research communities at UCD through our behaviours and attitudes to each other in our work and it underpins research integrity and excellence. This category recognises those who value the contributions of all those involved in our research and who strive to create a collegial and collaborative research environment.

One UCD

Going the extra mile, or delivering better ways of doing things to help people (students, colleagues, partners) to realise a vibrant and ambitious culture where a sense of belonging is central to all that we do. 

Globally Engaged

As Ireland’s global university, our values live beyond our Dublin campuses. Consistent with our global engagement key objectives, this category will recognise contributions towards UCD's ambition to foster an inclusive, integrated multicultural environment, enabling our students, faculty and staff to gain a deeper understanding of the world through study or through experiences in Ireland and abroad. The category will also celebrate contributions towards nurturing UCD's  global networks and partnerships and enhancing the global impact of  UCD's research and scholarship.

External Engagement

UCD is a university that makes a difference. Our impact is greatest when we engage actively with partners in government, industry, third sector organisations or communities to achieve it. This category celebrates the impact that we make through our work and voluntary activities.

Fostering Inclusion

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) celebrates the diversity present in UCD and strives to foster inclusion to ensure that all members of the UCD community are treated equally and fairly, regardless of gender, age, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, civil status, family status, or membership of the Traveller community. This category acknowledges those who bring EDI to life in UCD through their daily activity. 

  • 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.  Retired / Emeritus / Research & Teaching Active categories are not covered by the UCD VIA's.
  • 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 inclusiveness 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.

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

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

The scoring process will remain confidential.

All decisions of the Adjudication Committee 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

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

Contact Culture & Engagement

Culture & Engagement, UCD HR 3rd Floor, Roebuck Offices University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
E: engage@ucd.ie | Location Map(opens in a new window)