Memos to Campus
Eligibility for Merit and Promotion Reviews: Researchers, Project Scientists, Specialists, and Academic Coordinators
August 4, 2025
To: Department Chairs, Academic Unit Directors, Business Officers, and Academic Personnel Analysts
From: Dana Mastro, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Re: Eligibility for Merit and Promotion Reviews: Researchers, Project Scientists, Specialists, and Academic Coordinators
The lists of non-senate academic employees who are eligible for merits and promotions during the 2025-26 academic personnel review cycle (effective July 1, 2026) in the titles noted above, are now available. Deadlines for departmental submission of cases are:
Researchers: Monday, March 2, 2026
Specialists and Project Scientists: Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Academic Coordinators: Friday, May 1, 2026
To access your eligibility list, please log on to AP Folio via the Academic Personnel website and click on the Eligibility Listing link. Tabs will then appear for each category of employees. Chairs and Directors as well as any staff within your office who have access to the online cases processing system have access to the eligibility information. In addition to viewing the lists you may download them to Excel or save PDF versions.
The July 1, 2026 Eligibility Listing page for each employee category includes the following sections:
Employees eligible for review to be effective 7/1/2026
Listed members are eligible for review based on their years at rank, step, or since last review. Mandatory reviews are so designated and may not be deferred. An action must be selected for each eligible employee. Departments are encouraged to enter selections by January 31 to assist with planning.
All other employees in your department
These employees are not eligible for review based on years at rank, step, or since last review. However, Department Chairs and Directors should consider the performance since last review of each person on this list for possible acceleration, if justified.
Please note (Academic Researchers only):
An online bio-bibliography for Researchers, Project Scientists and Specialists is now required. Please refer to the July 2024 memo. Please also review the Fall 2024 training slides – Introduction to New Online Bio-bib – Academic Researchers, with your Academic Researchers.
As a reminder, for all eligible employees for review in the Researcher, Project Scientist, and Specialist series, the Academic Researcher Merit and Promotion Review Notification must be sent at least 6 weeks before materials are due. The template for departments to customize is found on our Forms page.
As well, Deferrals are no longer automatic for Academic Researchers (Researcher, Project Scientist, and Specialist series). Please refer to the January 2020 case deferral process memo.
If you have any questions or see any discrepancies related to the eligibility information, please contact the staff in Academic Personnel as follows:
- Researcher, Project Scientist, and Specialist eligibility: Joanna Kettmann at joanna.kettmann@ucsb.edu.
- Academic Coordinator eligibility: Mira Lázaro at mslaza@ucsb.edu or Lia Cabello at lia.cabello@ucsb.edu.
- Technical questions related to use of the site: help@aait.ucsb.edu.
In order to ensure that submission deadlines are met, please begin meeting with your academic employees in a timely manner to advise each of them about moving forward with or deferring their cases.