Deadline extended for The Australian Innovation Challenge

On 8 July, entries in this year’s $70,000 The Australian Innovation Challenge awards were officially opened. The deadline was originally 26 August but it has now been extended until 9 September.

Run by The Australian in association with Shell and supported by the federal government statutory body Innovation Australia, the awards are helping to drive breakthroughs to commercialisation or execution. Its seven professional categories, open to specialists, each carry a prize of $5000. The overall winner out of these categories will receive a further $25,000:

• environment, agriculture and food
• minerals and energy
• health
• ICT
• education
• manufacturing and hi-tech design (designs either taken up in Australia or exported)
• community services

Many of the categories also cover enabling technology, such as nanotechnology, advanced materials and biotechnology.

An eighth category, backyard innovation, is open to the public and has a $10,000 prize.

The judging criteria are:

• scientific or technological excellence and novelty
• potential benefit and impact
• sustainability and end-user benefit
• commercialisation, adoption or 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.

Winners in the 2011 and 2012 awards who wish to enter this year must enter different projects. Entrants who did not win a prize may enter the same projects in 2013 but must explain how the work has developed in the meantime.

High-scoring projects will be promoted by the organisers, with the best entries featured in a prominent position in The Australian and The Weekend Australian over several weeks and showcased on the awards website and in a dedicated magazine.

The online entry form and details of the awards are available at http://theaustralian.com.au/innovationchallenge.