Extramural Research
Scientific and Technological Achievement Award (STAA) Overview
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2012 Assistant Administrator's Call Letter (PDF) (1 pp, 54 K)
2012 Announcement Letter (PDF) (2 pp, 64 K)
2011 Administrator Award Letter (PDF) (1 pp, 245 K)
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2011 STAA Awards
The 2011 STAA Awards are Now Available:
Level I | Level II | Level III | Honorable Mentions
The Science Advisory Board STAA nomination review committee elected not to review the nominations submitted to the Project and Research Reports Pilot Category. ORD is currently seeking other means of recognizing these accomplishments.
The STAA review program is a long-standing partnership between the Agency and the EPA Science Advisory Board. Each year since 1980, Agency scientists and engineers have submitted nominated scientific and technological papers through an internal Agency review process managed by the Office of Research and Development (ORD).
The SAB convenes an experienced interdisciplinary group of scientists and engineers to evaluate the nominations. The SAB review panel produces a set of award recommendations which ORD uses to prepare the actual awards.
Recognition of the authors of the award-winning papers helps establish publication in peer reviewed journals as normative. Beginning in 2003, the Agency has honored those EPA authors receiving the highest level of awards at the annual Science Forum. In response to an SAB review panel recommendation in 2005, the Agency now lists the non-EPA co-authors of the STAA winning papers beside their EPA counterparts. This is one way the Agency can acknowledge these scientists and engineers whose scientific and technological contribution resulted in peer reviewed publications that received an award for its quality.
Publicity about the STAA program encourages employees to participate, adds luster to the awards, and makes the general public more aware of the quality and depth of EPA science. Making the public aware of the quality of EPA science and its publication in the peer reviewed literature improves the credibility of the science underpinning Agency decisions on important scientific issues of specific importance to EPA.