Finalists announced: 2025 CU Innovation & Efficiency Awards
The Office of University Controller has announced the finalists for this year’s CU Innovation & Efficiency (CU I&E) Awards program, spotlighting innovative projects that are transforming CU’s systems and saving time, money and effort.
The top five teams, which will be announced in early June, are eligible for cash prizes up to $1,500.
Here are the projects and teams making an impact with solutions that may have use elsewhere across the university.
Change of Major/Minor Automated Robot Process
This collaboration between CU Boulder’s College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Registrar introduced an automated process to streamline major and minor declarations, improving accessibility and efficiency while enhancing student communication. By eliminating paper forms and manual data entry, it has significantly increased staff productivity and garnered interest from other colleges for broader adoption.
Decreasing Clinical Research Startup Time
The CTRC Study Startup Dashboard at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus is a custom-built solution that optimizes collaboration and document control, reducing nursing order finalization time by over 50% and improving regulatory compliance and patient safety. This tool has transformed clinical research startup efficiency and strengthened interdisciplinary teamwork.
Departmental Indirect Cost Recovery Split % Report Automation
This automation at CU Boulder modernized a labor-intensive manual process, creating a real-time, on-demand reporting tool that improves efficiency, accuracy and user access, empowering stakeholders with actionable insights for data-driven decision-making. It has significantly enhanced customer service across departments, eliminating delays and inefficiencies.
Hiring Request Portal - Enrollment Management and Finance & Business Strategy
CU Boulder’s Hiring Request Portal, built with PowerApps, automates the hiring and promotion request process, streamlining communication and improving workflow efficiency. With over 100 submissions processed, it has saved hundreds of staff hours and earned praise for its user-friendly interface and effectiveness.
On Time, On Budget: The Key to Award Management Success
This award management system at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus centralizes and automates the full research funding life cycle, from proposal submission to closeout, ensuring compliance, accuracy and timely reporting. By reducing manual processes, it has eliminated missed deadlines and improved overall support for researchers.
Research Cores, Rewired: The Case for Automation With Tools You Already Own
Leveraging tools like Qualtrics and Microsoft Dataverse, this project at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus created an automated management system for a research core facility, streamlining operations and reducing administrative workload. Automation of quotes, invoicing and data tracking has improved transparency and empowered staff to focus on high-impact scientific work.
Safety Permit Approval and Generation Using Power Automated
Using Power Automate, this project at UCCS streamlined the approval and generation of safety permits for campus activities, improving communication and efficiency across multiple departments. The automation provides real-time status updates and reduces manual work, simplifying the permit approval process.
Sponsor Setup Automation reduces the manual effort required to add over 500 sponsors to the PeopleSoft Finance System each year by automating data entry and validation, saving over three weeks of work annually and enhancing data accuracy. This CU system administration solution allows staff to focus on more impactful tasks and ensures timely financial transactions.
Sustainability in Simulation Operations
This CU Anschutz Medical Campus project promotes sustainability by recycling, repackaging and repurposing plastic materials used in health care simulation training, significantly reducing waste and the need for new materials. By reusing items like foley catheter bags and educating staff and students on sustainable practices, the initiative supports the university’s environmental goals.
View all CU I&E Finalists here
- Office of University Controller