Purpose of the Award
The Advocacy Governance Committee (AGC) award for Public Engagement recognizes excellence of an INFORMS member who has actively engaged with the public to advance the profession in the topic areas covered by INFORMS, either by communicating relevant research results or by advocating for use of management science, operations research, and analytics to inform policy decision making. This award is meant to highlight, recognize, and honor the work that INFORMS members do to connect their work to public and private sector decision making processes that can have an impact for society, including multiple stakeholders, in any public policy area.
For this award, public engagement activities have an intended audience of either:
- The public
- Government officials or organizations, including elected officials
- Non-governmental or quasi-governmental organizations
Impact of the public engagement can be demonstrated in a variety of ways, for example:
- Supporting the work of governments, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders to make more informed decisions using INFORMS-expertise-based solutions through the development of reports, providing written or verbal testimony, serving as an expert advisor, or providing consultation.
- Developing and distributing materials tailored for those who are not INFORMS experts, to convey an understanding of how these tools could help address societal challenges. This may include INFORMS-based solutions that have the potential to impact the public and the society around us. Any work done during the nominee's career is potentially relevant.
Timeline:
- January 31, 2025, Applications open
- May 15, 2025, Nominations due
- Sept 1, 2025, Awardee is notified
Application Process: Submissions will be accepted through both nominations and self-nominations.
Click here for access to the INFORMS online submission portal and provide all relevant information including:
- A nomination letter (PDF Format, 2 pages max), including a bulleted list of activities related to public engagement and their impact, highlighting work that was done in conjunction with the INFORMS Public Affairs Staff.
- The nominee's curriculum vitae (CV/Resume).
- A citation of merit - a paragraph of approximately 100 words that highlights the nominee's contributions in this area.
- Acknowledgment of the outlined terms and conditions in the portal.
- Letters of support from government officials, colleagues, and/or other stakeholders may be submitted but are not required. (PDF Format, If including multiple letters, please place in one document and attach one document.)
Notes: At most, one recipient will be awarded each year. The committee may choose not to present the award every year.
The award includes a framed certificate presented at the Advocacy and Governance Session held at the INFORMS Annual Meeting.
Award Criteria
Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
1. Content created:
- Please describe public engagement of INFORMS-related work towards a specific objective, that is, narrative descriptions of relevant projects, links to or copies of materials developed (articles, op-ed, etc.), including or referencing other documentation available.
- Care should be given to highlight work that was done along with the INFORMS Public Affairs staff.
- Collaboration with stakeholders is considered as part of this criterion and therefore should also be described.
2. Decision opportunity/real world impact:
- Please describe the importance of the problem, including a description of the decision or type of decisions this work is meant to impact.
- Timeliness of the issue and the nominee’s engagement on the issue is a factor considered in terms of this criterion, so should be noted here, if relevant. For example, if the problem is especially topical or relevant in today’s policy space, that would be more timely than an issue that has been worked on using tools in the INFORMS space for a long time.
3. Result:
- Please describe the outcome of the nominee’s contributions, described in terms relevant for the problem, such as, number of people, amount of land acreage, dollars of consumer spending, etc.
- The scale and scope of impact of the outcome are important and must be documented as part of this criterion.
