The graduate institution award sponsored by Zinpro is a $2000 award to the institution with the overall best graduate competition proceedings/presentation. It uses exactly the same evaluation (scoring) systems used to evaluate graduate competition proceedings and presentations. However, rather than simply giving more money to the winning graduate student, this award is given to the institution with the highest average combined score for both proceeding and presentation. All western region schools (including Canada and Mexico) are eligible. In addition, graduate students of ASAS members outside the region that pay dues to the WS are eligible (see the WSASAS constitution). There must be a minimum of three proceedings submitted from an institution to be considered for the award. There is no limit on the number of proceedings submitted by an institution. However, all proceedings submitted by an institution to the graduate competition session will be used to calculate the institution average score. The institution with the highest average score is the winner. Although the award is given to the winning institution, the money can only be used to benefit graduate students that participate in the WSASAS.

The purpose of the award is to acknowledge and reward institutional excellence and the pursuit of excellence in written and oral communication of original animal science research.