How to Manage the Settings for an Award

The configuration of Awards within Nucleus is a critical aspect that caters to the diverse requirements of each project. For instance, certain Awards entail financial transactions, while others necessitate the integration of the Viewing Interface to facilitate the judging process. Additionally, for specific projects, Administrators may opt to convey essential updates to Entrants concerning vital milestones within the Award’s lifecycle.

These versatile customisation options are consolidated on the Awards Setting page. The interface empowers Administrators to seamlessly tailor settings according to their required processes.

1. How to Create a New Award

Go to Actions>Awards
The Award List page opens
Click on the Add button at the top left corner of the page
Your award is now created. The Edit existing award page opens

2. How to manage the Award Settings

The Award Settings are divided into five different subsections. Some of them are optional:

Main Settings (mandatory)
Options Section (optional, but recommended)
Viewing Section (optional)
Messages Section (optional)
Pricing Section (optional)

2.1 Main Settings

This section contains core functions that are required in order for the award to work. It is the only mandatory section as it contains fundamental information such as the Award’s name, dates, core instructions, pricing and settings for the Viewing Portal.

Internal name – this is how Admin Users will identify the project. This MUST be always unique in order to prevent Admin Users from mistaking it for other projects and to prevent conflicts in Nucleus
External name – this is the name that will be displayed to end users on the Entry, Viewing and Voting Interfaces. Note this can be set the same for both fields
Country of Award/Project – select the country where the Awards will be held or are primarily accepting applications from, even if the project is being administrated from a different territory. The answer to this question will be used to apply country-specific options, such as finance, tax, time zones and other local options. See more instructions here
Active – set it to Yes to be accessible to Entrants
Show entries on entrant dashboard – set it to Yes so that Entrants will be able to see the Entries that they create on their Dashboard
Show entries for – input a value here. This is the number of months where Entries will be visible on the entrant dashboard after their creation
Order Number – this determines the order in which Awards are listed when the entrant is creating a new entry page. If this is your first project enter 1 If not then you need to enter a number to correspond with the order in which the projects should appear on the Create Entry Page, so 1, 2, 3 etc.

In the right-hand column, you need to set a series of dates and times.

Opens on – date when your project opens for Entries. This must be set before the last Create Date
Last create date – the last date Entrants can create new forms
Last submit date – the last date Entrants can submit forms. This is separate from the Create Date as you can give Users a cut-off to create new Entries and then an extended date to enable Users to submit their Entries. The creation and submission date can be the same
Last pay date – the date when all users should have completed payment. If you are not accepting payment this can be left blank
Show closed message until – below it is possible to set messages for Entrants. After the Award closes, the closed message will be displayed and this date controls when the closed message will stop being displayed. Set this to appear until when you believe you will open for Entries next year. This must be set in the future after the Submission Date. We recommend setting 1 year after the Submission Date
Delete personal data on – when building the forms, any Question Type that potentially allows for the inclusion of personal data can be marked for automated deletion. Set a date here when the data entered into these fields will be automatically deleted. The date must be at least two weeks in the future. Review this guide
Delete award on – this is the Award deletion date. Note this must be a minimum of 6 months after the current submission date. More instructions here
Remove Media Items from Entries – this is an automated process to delete Media Items only. Note this must be a minimum of 3 months after the current submission date. Please review this guide

2.2 Options Section

There are a number of preferences that can be set in the Options section but most of them will not stop the project from functioning and are extra tools to help you control your project.

Starting from the left-hand column you will find:

Open to – if you want to restrict the Award only to certain User types, please select them from this list. To leave the Award open to everyone, simply skip this field
Allow mass actions for entries – this can be used to manage your Entries in bulk. It enables Admins to select multiple entries within an Award and apply bulk changes to them
Award has categories? – if enabled, it allows Admins to create Categories
Show approval status on entrant dashboard – if set to yes, the approval Status will be displayed on the Entrant Dashboard
Dashboard warning time (days) – This defines how many days before the cut off date warnings are shown for entries in this award on the entrant dashboard. See how to set deadline alerts on the Entrant’s Dashboard
Generate certificate on entry approval – turn this on to generate Certificates for Entries upon approval

From the right-hand column:

From address for emails – this is the email from which emails will be sent for this Award. The email address must have the same extension as has been set up for the instance. In addition, this is valid only for Award-specific email templates, otherwise the Default From Email Address set on the Configuration Values will be used.
From name for emails – this is the name displayed for emails sent from this Award
Send emails on entry approval – if set to yes, emails will be sent to Entrants once their entry has been approved
Entries require approval/progression – if activated, it allows Admins to progress entries. Progression is a more complex workflow and can be used to move an entry or to create a parent/child relationship
Submit dependent question – If selected, the submit button will not be visible on an Entry unless that Question is also visible
Allow user to delete entries – if set to yes, Users will be able to delete Entries before and after Submission (when an invoice hasn’t been generated yet)
Max entries per organisation – Admins wish to control the maximum number of Entries that an Entrant can create for a given Award. Set a value here to specify the number

Allow entrant to copy entries – if set to yes, Users will be able to copy Entries
Include entrant notes field – if enabled, it creates a Notes field at the bottom of the form on the Entrant site, for Entrants to be able to add internal notes
Show on ‘Create New Entry’ page – if set to Yes, the Award will be visible on the ‘Create New Entry’ page

2.3 Viewing Section (optional)

If you wish to display Entries, data or assets on a Viewing Platform, you will first need to set this up. This guide covers in detail the steps you can take. There are some optional

In addition to this, Nucleus has developed a Voting functionality, which can also be turned on from here.

2.4 Messages Section (optional)

If required, from this section you’ll be able to add messages to inform Entrants of the state of the Award’s cycle. Please review this guide to see how to personalise the Entrant’s ‘Create Entry’ page.

2.5 Pricing Section (optional)

If your Award takes payments, you can set your main requirements from this section. To review how to set pricing bands for your awards, please read this guide.

Once you’ve completed all these sections, you can then follow the other steps to launch your Award. This guide explains in detail the stages you can follow.