Call for USMC Nominations for the 2027 Department of the Navy Information Superiority and Spectrum Excellence Awards Program

1. To formally announce call for nominations for the
2027 Department of the Navy (DON) Information Superiority (IS) and
Spectrum Excellence Awards. These awards are for the performance
period 01 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. The DON IS and Spectrum
Excellence Awards program recognizes individuals and teams whose work
produces measurable improvements in DON mission readiness, resilience,
decision advantage, or workforce capability in Information Management
(IM) and Information Technology (IT) across the Department of the
Navy. For two decades, the Department of the Navy Chief Information
Officer has presented awards that recognize measurable individual and
team outcomes. DON CIO will accept nominations in the following
categories from 01 October through COB 01 December 2026. Please ensure
nominations clearly state the program/category of each nominee.
1.a. Optimize: Deliver measurable improvements in user experience,
service performance, affordability, and the operational value of DON
information-technology investments.
1.b. Secure: Enable mission success through adaptive and resilient
cybersecurity capabilities.
1.c. Decide: Create warfighting and business decision advantage.
1.d. Innovate: Actively scout game changing technologies, practices,
and processes that can expedite our competitive advantage.
1.e. Workforce: Empower the Digital Workforce
1.f. DON Information Superiority Person of the Year : Recognize
sustained leadership and attributable outcomes with enterprise or
cross-organizational impact.
1.g. Electromagnetic Spectrum "John J Lussier" Award: Provides
strategic leadership to the DON Spectrum workforce that measurably
improves DON spectrum readiness, access, policy, partnerships or
workforce capability. This award is named for John J. Lussier, a
former DON Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer who was a strong
advocate for safeguarding the DON spectrum interests and advancing its
strategic vision for electromagnetic spectrum management.
1.h. Electromagnetic Spectrum Individual Award and Team Awards:
Demonstrates technical, operational or policy leadership with specific
achievement related to the innovation/development or use of
spectrum-dependent capabilities to achieve mission success, measurably
improving spectrum access and readiness or operational outcomes at
command, Fleet or enterprise scale.
1.i. Electromagnetic Spectrum "Catalyst" Award: Demonstrates
exceptional initiative, growth, and measurable impact as a rising star
in the Spectrum workforce.
2. Award criteria. Nomination content requirements are contained in
reference (a).
3. Eligibility. Service members (Officers and Enlisted) in the grade
O-6 and below or DoD civilians GS-15 or equivalent and below are
eligible for nomination. Contractors may be recognized as part of a
team if led by military or DoD civilian.
4. Nominations.
4.a. Nominations. Qualified individuals and/or teams will be submitted
via the first O-6 in the chain of command to the Service CIO, the
Deputy Commandant for Information (DC I).
4.b. Service CIO Nominations. The DC I will review, approve, and submit
the most qualified candidates for each award category to the DON CIO.
4.c. DON CIO Selection. Nominee selections are based on the strength of
the award justification by a panel comprised of Navy, Marine Corps, and
DON CIO judges. Forwarding letters and/or endorsements are not
required. The official DON CIO Winners Announcement listing all 2027
Awardees will be released via separate correspondence.
5. Awards Presentation. The DON Information Superiority Excellence
Awards ceremony will be held at a date to be determined. More details
to follow.
6. Administration and Logistics.
6.a. USMC nominations must contain all requested information and be
uploaded to https://usmc.sharepoint-mil.us/sites/DCI/Awards/SitePages/
DON_IT_Awards.aspx by COB 13 November 2026. No fax or hard copy
submissions will be accepted. Due to the timeline, no extensions will
be approved.
6.b. All nominations must be coordinated through the nominee's
chain-of-command for quality review and eligibility.
6.c. The references, nomination template, and further guidance can be
found at the following website: https://usmc.sharepoint-mil.us/sites/
DCI/Awards/SitePages/DON_IT_Awards.aspx.
7. Command and Signal.
7.a. This MARADMIN is applicable to the Marine Corps Total Force.
7.b. Ensure widest dissemination of this MARADMIN.
7.c. Questions regarding the DON Information Superiority Excellence
Awards should be directed to the POC's listed in this MARADMIN.
8. Release authorized by Lieutenant General J. A. Matos III,
Headquarters Marine Corps, Deputy Commandant for Information.