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CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award

Council of Graduate Schools

First presented in 1981 and sponsored jointly by CGS and ProQuest, part of Clarivate, these awards are made each year to individuals who, in the opinion of the award committee, have completed dissertations representing original work that makes an unusually significant contribution to the discipline.

Two CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, each consisting of an award of $2,000 and a certificate of recognition, will be presented at the CGS Annual Meeting Awards Luncheon in December 2026, in Los Angeles, CA. Reasonable travel expenses of award recipients will be covered. Only the winners and the nominating deans will be notified of the outcomes of the competition prior to the Awards Luncheon.

The deadline for submission to the CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award is July 3rd, 2026.

Nominations for the honor are made by “regular” institutional members of CGS in good standing and reviewed by an advisory committee of expert scholars in each field. Each eligible member may nominate one person in the field of physical sciences and one in the field of social sciences, for a total of two nominations maximum per institution. A separate nomination form and package must be submitted for each institutional nominee.

The effective date of the degree awarded, or the completion of doctoral degree requirements and dissertation, must lie in the period of July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2026, inclusive, for each nominee selected. Such degree award or completion is to be confirmed by the institution’s graduate dean or other administrative officer responsible for doctoral degree programs.

How to Submit a Nomination

To complete the nomination package, fill out the nomination form at the link below. Be prepared to include:

An abstract of the nominee’s dissertation (not to exceed five double-spaced pages). Appendices containing other material, such as charts, tables, and/or references, may be included as additional pages (not to exceed five pages).
Three letters of recommendation evaluating the significance and quality of the nominee’s dissertation work. One of these letters is to be from the nominee’s dissertation supervisor, another from a member of the nominee’s dissertation committee, and the third from a person of the nominee’s choice.
The nominee’s curriculum vitae (not to exceed five pages).
A certification of support for nomination, signed by the CGS institutional primary membership contact (typically the graduate dean or equivalent). If you are unsure who your institutional primary contact is, please email memberservices@cgs.nche.edu.

A CGS account is required to submit a nomination. To create an account, click here and follow the prompts to create a new account. Once your account is created, email memberservices@cgs.nche.edu for one-time set-up; this ensures that your account is appropriately linked with your institutional membership and verifies that your student is eligible for this award.

AI Based Application Success Predictor

1. Clear, measurable impact on graduate student success (highest predictor)

For the ETS/CGS innovation award, CGS explicitly asks applicants to describe how the proposed institutional changes will promote success in graduate education, along with the metrics that will be used to assess outcomes.

Strong proposals usually show impact on:

graduate retention
time-to-degree
completion rates
mentoring quality
wellness/support
equity and inclusion
career outcomes

Projects tied to concrete outcomes rather than broad intentions tend to be stronger.

2. Degree of innovation

CGS lists innovation as a formal review criterion.

Competitive proposals often offer:

a new institutional model
creative mentoring or advising systems
novel student-support structures
scalable interventions for graduate success
data-informed redesign of graduate education processes

3. Strong institutional commitment and collaboration

This is one of the clearest CGS predictors.

Reviewers specifically consider:

cross-campus collaboration
graduate school leadership support
endorsement from the provost/chief academic officer
commitment from multiple units
matching funds or institutional investment

CGS explicitly evaluates “extent of institutional collaboration and commitment.”

4. Sustainability beyond the grant period

A major predictor.

CGS requires a sustainability plan describing how the initiative will continue after funding ends.

Strong applications usually answer:

How will this continue after year 2?
Will the institution absorb the costs?
Can the model become part of standard graduate-school practice?

5. Replicability / broader relevance

CGS strongly favors projects that other universities can learn from or adopt.

Competitive proposals often demonstrate:

transferable best practices
adaptable institutional models
clear documentation and evaluation framework
potential for national influence in graduate education

6. Strong evidence base / data-driven problem analysis

Successful applications typically begin with strong institutional analysis.

CGS asks applicants to explain:

what problem analysis led to the proposed strategy.

Strong proposals often include:

retention/completion data
climate survey results
student needs assessment
demographic equity analysis
program evaluation findings

For the CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award specifically

For individual dissertation nominations, the strongest predictors are:

original dissertation research
unusually significant contribution to the discipline
strong scholarly writing
broad disciplinary relevance
nomination by the graduate school of a CGS member institution

CGS describes the award as honoring dissertations that make an “unusually significant contribution” to the field.

Specialties

Others

Eligibility Requirements

The fields of competition for the award include biological sciences, social sciences, mathematical and physical sciences, the humanities and fine arts. Winners are chosen by a committee of CGS member deans. Rotating on two-year cycles, contributions to the physical sciences and the social sciences are awarded one year; contributions to the biological and life sciences, and the humanities and fine arts are awarded the following year.

The fields of competition for 2026 are:

Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering
Social Sciences

If a dissertation is multi- or interdisciplinary in nature, a significant portion of the work must be comprised by at least one of the 2026 fields of competition.

Sponsor Details

Sponsor Institute/Organizations: Council of Graduate Schools

Sponsor Type: Corporate/Non-Profit

Address: One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 230 Washington, DC 20036

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