AgBioResearch

The CANR Excellence in Research Award, a program sponsored by AgBioResearch (ABR), recognizes the outstanding contributions of CANR researchers to the research mission of Michigan State University (MSU). In particular, the awards focus on the impact that their achievements have had on academic and/or external stakeholder communities. This program is also intended to support the nomination of CANR faculty for further MSU, national, and international recognitions.

Types of Awards:

• Early Career Researcher Award: Individuals with less than five (5) years of research experience (not including graduate research or postdoc).
• Mid-Career Researcher Award: Individuals with five (5) or more years of research experience (not including graduate research or postdoc). Preference will be given to those with at least 5 years of service at MSU/CANR.
• Career Award: Individuals with 15 or more years of research experience (not including graduate research or postdoc). Preference will be given to those with at least 10 years of service at MSU/CANR.
• Impact Award (Co-Sponsored by ABR and MSUE): Research project (individual or team collaboration) that has made an outstanding impact on the external stakeholder community.

Individuals nominated for the above listed awards must be current CANR faculty (tenure system or fixed term) or academic specialists who have a majority of their educational appointments within CANR. Faculty and staff do not need an ABR or Extension appointment to be nominated for an award.

Ideal candidates for the CANR Excellence in Research Awards will have:

• Demonstrated commitment to research through experimentation, discovery, and application of innovative techniques that advance scholarly work.
• Evidence of research excellence reflected in impactful scholarly outputs such as peer-reviewed publications, competitive grant funding, conference presentations, and awards.
• Impact of research excellence demonstrated through academic metrics (e.g., citations, Google Scholar H-index, adoption of innovative methods) and/or influence on external stakeholder communities (e.g., policy or practice changes, measurable economic, social, or environmental benefits).

Faculty and staff are encouraged to submit nominations (including self-nominations) to their department or unit chairs. Once endorsed by the department or unit chairs, nominators should work collaboratively with nominees to prepare the nomination package.

The nomination package for the Early career, Mid-career, and Career awards shall include:

• A research statement by the nominee (maximum 2 pages),
• Nominee’s biosketch (maximum 2 pages)
• One nomination letter from department or unit chair
• Two letters of support (internal or external, 2 pages/letter).

The nomination package for the Research Impact Award shall include:

• A project summary and impact statement by the nominee or the team leader of the nominated team (maximum 2 pages)
• Biosketch (maximum 2 pages)/team member
• One nomination letter from department or unit chair of the nominee or the team leader of the nominated team
• Two letters of support (external only, 2 pages/letter).

Award recipients will be recognized each year. Career, Mid-Career, and Early Career Researcher Award recipients may only receive each award once. The award review committee will strongly favor those nominations for individuals who have not previously received MSU, national, or international recognitions for their research.

All nomination packages shall be submitted electronically to the ABR Award Submission Site by the department/unit chairs or their designated representative. The deadline to submit is COB of Friday, December 5^th, 2025.

If you have questions about the award requirements and the process, please contact Courtney Peatross, the program coordinator for this award at winansco@msu.edu.