Warwick Technician Commitment Award for Outstanding Achievement

We are pleased to provide ongoing support to the Warwick Technician Commitment Award for Outstanding Achievement (which was originally launched in May 2023).This celebrates the fantastic work our technical staff do across research, teaching and within our infrastructure, without which Warwick would not operate.

We encourage any member of staff or student to nominate a technical member of staff for achievements big or small, or to celebrate work that is unsung but still immensely important.

Nominations can be made at any time but will be considered annually in the Autumn term with awards presented at the Christmas event

The revised awards process will have the following categories:

• Outstanding performance (above and beyond the role) – Why is this performance outstanding? What have they done that goes above and beyond their expected duties?
• Exceptional colleague (unsung hero) – How does this person make a difference to colleagues in their team/working environment/department
• Long standing high performance - What has this person done to achieve a consistently high standard of performance?
• Team Award – What does this Team do that sets them apart from other teams?

The Award Winners and those considered highly commended will receive a certificate and vouchers to celebrate their achievements and these will be awarded at the Christmas event.

The team will receive our Team Trophy, and will be rewarded with a congratulatory team lunch at the conference centres on campus.

Nominations to be submitted by 31 October annually for consideration. All nominations to be completed on the submission form below.

The panel will consider all nominations on their individual merits, with a focus on the quality and strength of evidence provided, rather than the number of nominations received for any individual or team.

We have provided eligibility, guidance and further information below the nomination form, but if you have any questions, please contact technicians@warwick.ac.uk.

Eligibility, Guidance and Further Information

Eligibility:

• Individual nominees must be technical staff who are aligned to the Technical Staff Job Family. Nominated teams must be predominantly made up of such staff.Contact technicians@Warwick.ac.ukif clarification is required.
• No self-nominations are allowed.Line managers are able to nominate their own teams.
• The nominee must be a member of staff at the time of award presentation.
• Nominations can be for a single body of work or multiple (potentially smaller) bodies of work.
• A nominee can only receive an individual award in one category

Further information and guidance on writing a nomination:

• Individual and Team awards will run annually.
• The awards will be advertised via the TechNet webpages (https://warwick.ac.uk/research/technicians/) and via individual departments through their usual forms of communication.
• We will have coverage of the nominees via social media and on the TechNet website, to enhance the recognition and visibility of our technical staff, in line with our Technician Commitment Action Plan.
• Awards cannot be exchanged for any alternative.
• Only evidence included in the nomination (see below for advice on writing a nomination) will be taken into consideration, and the guidelines given on the submission form must be adhered to for the nomination to be valid.
• Panellists will not input into discussions regarding nominees from their own department.
• Awards will be selected by a panel that includes technical, academic and professional services staff drawn from a range of departments. Panel membership will be diverse (gender, career stage) and the technical representation will be regularly rotated to provide a variety of outlooks.
• The decision of the Award panel is final.

Nominations must be in one category only and should be no more than 250 words. It should include a brief outline of the reason for the nomination including the work undertaken with bullet points including specific detail AND EVIDENCE of why the nomination is being made. To ensure a fair review process, the review panel will use only the information and evidence included in the nomination in their decision making. Awards will not be given for someone just doing a really good job and nominations made without specific evidence of outstanding achievement being provided will not be considered by the panel.

Below are some examples (not an exhaustive list) of what outstanding achievement might look like:

• Where processing time or cost savings have been made
• Where work on development or introduction of new working practices have been proposed and implemented without prompting
• Where someone has gone over and above their daily tasks to make a difference (but how and why must be included in the evidence)
• Demonstrating success in solving an issue (outside of their normal role) that has helped a department or research group
• Demonstration of significant contribution in an area outside of normal role
• Demonstration of outstanding and proactive approach to work environment
• Attracting or contributing to funding applications where this is outside of normal role