APLU Honors Three Institutions with Council on Research Awards

Washington, D.C. – Recognizing efforts to advance public impact research and promote diversity and inclusion in research, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) today announced winners of its inaugural Council on Research (COR) Public Impact Research Award and Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in University Research.

APLU awarded Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Oklahoma State University Awards for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in University Research and recognized the University of Toledo with its Public Impact Research Award.

“Congratulations to this year’s COR Award winners,” said Howard Gobstein, Senior Vice President for STEM Education and Research Policy at APLU. “APLU’s Council on Research is delighted to recognize universities that excel in serving the public by enhancing the public impact of their research and advancing diversity and inclusion in their research activities.”

APLU’s award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in University Research recognizes a university’s Office of Research that has implemented one or more novel approaches for improving the diversity and inclusivity of the research enterprise at the institution, reinforcing the research workforce pipeline. The Public Impact Research award recognizes multi-project research efforts focused on community or public impact.

More information on the awardees is below:

• Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis’s Enhanced Mentoring Program with Opportunities for Ways to Excel in Research (EMPOWER) created a yearlong program supporting faculty from historically underrepresented and/or excluded groups in their discipline or area of scholarship.
• Oklahoma State University created a collaboration between Oklahoma State University’s Office of the Vice President for Research, the Center for Sovereign Nations and the American Indians Into Psychology program to support Native American students’ achievements.
• The University of Toledo developed an interdisciplinary water task force to provide support and information to public officials and the broader public amid a toxic algal bloom that led to a do not drink water advisory.