The 2018 CORE recipients have been announced.

Join us at EDRA49, June 6-9 in Oklahoma City for the CORE recognition ceremony!

Applications for the 2019 CORE Program will open in late 2018

About CORE

The Certificate of Research Excellence (CORE) is a professional certification that recognizes and celebrates exceptional, rigorous, and impactful practice-based environmental design research studies. CORE affords design research professionals in any industry sector the opportunity to be at the forefront of environmental design research, showcase the proficiency of their work, provide lasting value to clients, and advance the industry with rigorous and impactful design research.

Applications to CORE undergo a rigorous, double-blind review by an interdisciplinary panel of experts. Each application is scored on its own merit against the CORE evaluation criteria, which are based on two main dimensions: (1) Research Rigor—the use of recognized scientific approaches (research design, tools, and data collection) and techniques to produce valid results (data analysis and finding interpretation), and (2) Research Value—the study’s actual (or potential future) impact on the design industry and project stakeholders. There is no limit on the number of applications you may submit.

Minimum Requirements

To apply for CORE certification, the design research study must have:

• Been applied to or based on a real-world design project(s) or ongoing design program/effort;
• Considered the relationship between identified human and environmental variables;
• Included an interdisciplinary team of designers and researchers;
• Been completed (i.e., findings have been determined, documented, and shared);
• Been completed within the last two years; and
• Gone through the process of review by an Institutional Review Board (IRB), if the study involved human subjects (though it may have been deemed exempt).

Past Certifications

View 2018 Recipients

View 2017 Recipients

View 2016 Recipients