The Program of Excellence awards are selected in two ways: from faculty proposals and from departments and units who have been invited to submit a proposal. The faculty proposals must meet specific criteria and the department or unit proposals must built on existing POE priorities that have been identified by the Chancellor, Vice Chancellors, and Deans.

Short proposals are reviewed first by the Deans of their respective colleges; where proposals are multidisciplinary efforts, this review is coordinated by the respective deans. Once complete, these pre-proposals are forwarded to the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. The Senior Vice Chancellor and a review team including the Vice Chancellor of IANR, Vice Chancellor of Research, and the Associate Vice Chancellor for Agricultural Research evaluate and rank the short proposals. Ranking criteria include:

• Fit of request to College and University strategic plans and priorities;
• Investment from supporting colleges and departments;
• Potential for external support;
• Progress achieved with past funding;
• Included measurable goals and outcomes of proposal; and
• Evidence that proposed outcomes will build permanent capacity to achieve excellence.

After each proposal has been ranked against these criteria, the overall scores are tabulated and the review team ranks the proposals as a group. Recommendations may be to request a full proposal, not recommend funding, or suggest proposal redevelopment. When no funding is recommended, consideration is given as to whether alternative funding sources might be appropriate. When a proposal needs redevelopment, planning grants may be recommended in order to support initial efforts and/or direction will be given to assist revision.

Full proposals are requested for those pre-proposals receiving initial approval or where seed grants have been recommended. These full proposals may be required to address specific questions or feedback collected during the review process. These final proposals are returned to the review committee, where they are once again reviewed and ranked to validate which of these proposals will move onto final consideration. Total available funding is compared to funding required for these projects.

Items moving forward for final consideration are presented to the Academic Planning Committee (APC) for review and reviewed by the Chancellor and his Senior Administrative Team (SAT).

In any given year, funds that are not expended by the designated program because of timing or other issues are reallocated on a one-time basis for projects that directly support our existing priorities. In most instances, funding is redirected to our Enhancing Undergraduate Education priority to make classroom and technology improvements in support of learner-centered undergraduate education. These projects are identified by deans and vice chancellors, upon review of strategic plans, and are ranked by the Academic Planning Committee before funding is recommended.

All steps of our Programs of Excellence selection procedure at UNL are designed to allow for maximum opportunity to build high quality programs, focus resources on strategic priorities, and maximize effective funding distribution and leverage to attract external support.