Awards of Excellence Finalists
Congratulations to the 2025 UEDA Awards of Excellence Finalists. Leading initiatives from across North America compete in a six-month process, including application, peer review, online presentations, and, ultimately, selection by attendees of the annual UEDA Summit as category leaders. These projects represent the top university-based economic development initiatives in the country, as judged by their peers.
Talent
Talent includes the spectrum of knowledge transfer activities by which universities educate people, developing human capital for the 21st century Knowledge Economy. This category includes life-long learning, both degree and non-degree programs, experiential education and discovery-based learning programs, active alignment of curricula to industry needs, etc.
Florida Atlantic University
Biotech Hackathon: Empowering Next Gen Skills through Collaboration
North Carolina State University
Category Winner
University of Minnesota Crookston
Innovation
Innovation begins with basic research, but then builds on knowledge creation to encompass knowledge transfer and application in ways that are useful and relevant to society. This category encompasses basic research; applied, translational, problem-oriented, and industry-contracted R&D; cooperative extension services; technology transfer; etc.
Indiana University Indianapolis
University of Kentucky
Judges’ Award
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Category Winner
Place
Place is defined as the many and diverse ways in which institutions contribute to making attractive, competitive communities—places where people want to live, create and take jobs, raise their families, participate in civic life, and age and retire. Competitive, successful communities and regions are attentive to the health, education, environment, housing, safety, and entertainment needs of community members. Campuses and sites like research parks are components of place-making, but the focus of this definition is broader, on communities, or even on regions.
Georgia Southern University
University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute of Government
Category Winner
Community Branding Program: Place-Based Identity for Economic Growth
University of Virginia at Wise
Engaged University
This category recognizes initiatives that demonstrate excellence in linking all three legacy award categories. Projects included successfully engage multiple community partners to link, leverage and connect efforts in Talent, Innovation, and Place.
Campbellsville University
Missouri State University – efactory
University of Memphis
Category Winner
Delta Revitalization through Innovation, Vision, and Empowerment (DRIVE)