Who is Eligible

  • Applicants must be the first author or the principal student author of the submitted publication.
  • Applicants must be undergraduate or graduate students. An undergraduate is defined as a student who had not yet completed his or her bachelor’s degree when the publication was submitted for publication or presentation.
  • Applicants must be studying in a nuclear-fuel-cycle-relevant discipline.
  • Applicants must submit an online application and a journal publication that supports nuclear fuel cycle research that was published between December 2020 and the date of the application. A conference presentation may be submitted, but will not be ranked as highly as a journal publication. Concepts that add value to the Nuclear Technology R&D program will also be considered. Publications that have been accepted by a journal or conference, but have not yet been published or presented, are eligible.
  • Applicants must have been a student at the time the publication was submitted, must be a student at the time of the application, and must be planning to graduate no earlier than December 2022.
  • Applicants must be part of an on-going research program or a research program that was completed no earlier than August 2020.
  • Applicants who have won in previous Innovations Awards are eligible for another award under the following conditions:
    • Applicants who won a First Place award in the Open Competition are not eligible.
    • Applicants who won a Second Place award in the Open Competition are eligible for a First Place award in the Open Competition. They are not eligible for another Second Place award in the Open Competition, or an award in the Competition for Universities with Less Than $600 Million in 2020 R&D Expenditures, or the Undergraduate Competition.
    • Applicants who won an award in a previous Competition for Universities with Lower R&D Expenditures are eligible for an award in the Open Competition. They are not eligible for an award in the Competition for Universities with Less Than $600 Million in 2020 R&D Expenditures, or the Undergraduate Competition.
    • Applicants who won an award in the Undergraduate Competition are eligible for an award in the Open Competition, or the Competition for Universities with Less Than $600 Million in 2020 R&D Expenditures. They are not eligible for another award in the Undergraduate Competition.
  • Applicants who have won a previous Innovations Award and meet the conditions above must submit a different publication with significantly new information, and state the following in the "Further Explanation" section of the application: "I won a ‹competition› award in ‹year› with my publication ‹title› which was published/presented on ‹date› in ‹journal/conference›. This publication is significantly different from the award-winning publication in the following ways:" and then describe the differences.
  • Applicants may re-submit a publication submitted in a previous year as long as the publication did not win an Innovations Award and still meets this year's eligibility requirements.
  • Applicants must be U.S. citizens.

Rules for Award Winners

Applicants must agree to abide by the Rules for Award Winners.


Application Deadline

The deadline for applications is midnight, Central Daylight Time, Sunday March 13, 2022.