The Australian Innovation Challenge 2014 now open

Entries are open for this year’s The Australian Innovation Challenge awards, honouring excellence in fields from minerals and energy to ICT and community services. The $65,000 challenge is run by The Australian in association with Shell.

Now in their fourth year, the awards help to drive breakthroughs to commercialisation or adoption in several categories. The best entries will be featured in a prominent position in The Weekend Australian over several weeks and showcased on the awards website and in a dedicated publication.

The five professional categories open to specialists (including scientists, engineers, technologists, educators and innovators in community services) are:

• Environment, Agriculture and Food
• Community Services: Health, Education and Public Services
• Minerals and Energy
• Manufacturing, Construction and Infrastructure
• ICT

The professional category winners will receive prizes of $5000 and the overall winner will receive a further $25,000. Last year, Dr Michelle McIntosh and her team at Monash University won the overall prize for an inhalant form of oxytocin, a hormone that reduces haemorrhage after childbirth and which could save lives in developing countries.

A sixth category, Backyard Innovation, is open to the public and has a $10,000 prize. Queensland entrepreneur Trevor Powell last year won the Backyard Innovation prize for the Impacts solar desalination and power plant.

The challenge has also introduced a seventh category, Young Innovators. This is open to students under the age of 21 and carries a $5000 prize.

Entries in all categories will be judged by a panel of leaders from the science community, industry and government, led by innovation policy expert Dr Terry Cutler, against the following criteria:

• science or technological excellence and novelty
• potential impact
• sustainability and end-user benefit
• adoption and take-up (including plans for paths to market for early-stage development work).

The awards are open to individuals and teams, and you can enter more than one project. International collaborative projects are eligible as long as the work was driven from Australia. Previous winners must enter different projects, while previous entrants may enter the same projects but must explain how the work has developed.

The online entry form and details of the awards are on the awards website at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/innovationchallenge. Entries close on 14 July.