The Queensland Women in STEM Prize celebrates the exceptional contributions of Queensland's women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Now in its ninth year, the Queensland Women in STEM Prize aims to foster passion and drive among women and girls, encouraging their active participation and leadership within STEM, including the social sciences. By highlighting the achievements of these emerging leaders, we not only honour their remarkable work but also promote gender equity, diversity, and inclusion in Queensland's scientific and technological sectors.
Queensland's STEM community plays a vital role in driving economic prosperity, sustainability, and community well-being. While advancements in gender equality have opened doors for more women and girls, there remains a need to elevate women's visibility and recognition in leadership roles across STEM disciplines.
Help us to inspire the next generation of STEM leaders and pave the way for transformative change in Queensland's scientific and technological landscape—because when women succeed, we all benefit.
The 2024 Queensland Women in STEM Prize is a statewide competition for women within the first 15 years of their STEM careers who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, innovation, and impact to Queensland.
Please note: Nominations for the 2024 Queensland Women in STEM Prize are collected and managed via the Award Force online platform. Personal Information provided in nominations may be stored outside of Australia. By submitting a nomination, you agree to such transfer. Further information on treatment of personal information is available on Award Force’s website.
View our important information by clicking each of the below headings.
The Queensland Women in STEM Prize recognises individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, innovation, and impact to Queensland across three awards:
The Judges’ Award ($8,000 excl GST total prize money): open to emerging leaders in STEM who identify as a woman and have been working in their field for no more than 15 years in total.
First Nations STEM Award ($8,000 excl GST prize money): open to emerging leaders in STEM who identify as a woman and have been working in their field for no more than 15 years in total, and:
Breaking Barriers Award ($8,000 excl GST prize money): open to emerging leaders in STEM who identify as a woman and have been working in their field for no more than 15 years in total, and:
Winning recipients must use their Prize Money for professional development i.e., conference attendance, STEM-communication training, career-enhancing courses, research field trips, internships, purchasing new software etc.
Winners and Highly Commended recipients will also receive a promotional package valued at $3,000 each comprising:
Submissions open: Monday 27 May 2024
Submissions close: Friday 19 July 2024 (5pm AEST)
All entrants contacted and finalists announced: September 2024
Award ceremony and announcement of prize recipients: Wednesday 6 November 2024
The 2024 Queensland Women in STEM Prize is presented by Queensland Museum and the Queensland Government through the Office of the Queensland Chief Scientist, and the Office for Women.
Response to all nomination questions (required)
Address the questions relevant to the selected nomination category – this must be completed to be a valid nomination and assessed by the judges. These responses should not include confidential information as the responses may be made publicly available should the nomination be shortlisted.
Consent (required)
If not self-nominating, the nominator is encouraged to contact the nominee prior to submitting the nomination to seek their consent and feedback prior to submitting the nomination.
A Short CV (required)
Please upload a short CV (maximum 2 pages) that summarises your career experience.
References (required)
Contact details for two referees must be provided. One of the referees must provide a signed letter of reference to be uploaded with the nomination. Only one letter of reference is required, however a letter of reference from both referees may be provided if desired. References must be written by persons other than the Nominee (the person being nominated).
Letters of reference must be written in reference to the nomination and are to provide further information about the Nominee. As a guide, letters should include the following information:
If letters of reference are sent via email, letters must include a signature block from the sender incorporating email address and telephone number. As part of the standard reference check process, referees may be contacted to verify their reference and provide additional information. Contact details for a third referee and/or additional letters of reference may also be supplied within your nomination, however this is not mandatory.
Supporting documentation (optional)
You may submit up to five items of supporting documentation with your nomination, such as photos or videos of you engaging with others about STEM, publications or report lists, newspaper articles and additional references. Supporting documentation must be relevant to the nomination. Supporting documentation must be uploaded via the online nomination portal as prompted and will not be accepted by any other means. (Maximum upload limit 3MB per item).
For more information about the Queensland Women in STEM Prize, please contact the team via email. Alternatively you can call on (07) 3153 7814.
The 2024 Queensland Women in STEM Prize is open to any person who:
Applicants may include professionals, scientists, researchers, educators or students from any company, institute, government, university, not-for-profit or educational institution. Students are also eligible to apply.
No. Applicants are not required to hold a STEM qualification to apply.
Yes. You can nominate yourself or you can nominate someone you know.
If you are nominating someone you know, please ensure that they consent to their personal information being submitted as part of their nomination.
The Prize is open to women with up to 15 years of work experience in a STEM-related field.
The following will be considered towards 15 years of STEM career:
The following is not included in the 15 years in STEM career calculation:
To be eligible for the First Nations STEM Award, nominees must also:
To be eligible for the Breaking Barriers Award, nominees must also:
Nominations can only be submitted online.
Receipt of all nominations will be acknowledged via an automatically generated email from Award Force. Please ensure you provide a correct email address on your nomination form. If you do not receive a confirmation email within two business days after submitting your nomination, please notify the organiser via email or telephone 07 (07) 3153 7814. No responsibility will be taken for nominations that do not receive a confirmation email.
You may be contacted after submitting a nomination and asked to provide further details.
Nominations must be received by 5pm Friday 19 July 2024.
Late nominations will not be considered. No responsibility will be taken for nominations that are not received by the closing date.
Applications must be submitted by an individual. Teams are ineligible to apply. Entrants working as part of a team are encouraged to apply as an individual by focusing their application on their contribution to the team project.
Previous winners of the Queensland Women in STEM Prize are ineligible. If you have entered a previous Queensland Women in STEM Prize, but did not receive an award, you are welcome (and encouraged!) to enter again.
Eligible entries will be judged by a panel of experts in August 2024.
Nominations will be assessed on:
All questions must be completed, and CV uploaded, in order to progress through to judging. When answering the questions, it is important to provide specific examples of your / the Nominee’s achievements, or significant contribution to Queensland through STEM.
The awards will be determined by a panel of judges, including representatives from Queensland Museum and the Queensland science community, the Office of the Queensland Chief Scientist and the Office for Women.
Members of the judging panel will be required to declare any conflicts of interest that may arise from a personal or professional relationship with the nominees. Where a direct conflict of interest with a nominee exists, the judging member will abstain from ranking, scoring or voting for the nominee during judging panel deliberations.
Winning recipients must use their Prize Money for professional development i.e., conference attendance, STEM-communication training, career-enhancing courses, research field trips, internships, purchasing new software etc.
Winning recipients are required to acquit their prize within 12-months, providing evidence of what professional development activity their prize money was spent on.
Winners and Highly Commended recipients will also receive a promotional package valued at $3,000 each comprising:
Advancing research on Queensland’s marine life during environmental change
Using artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent mental illness
Rubble vs Recovery: Predicting where too much rubble could hurt the Great Barrier Reef
Digital foot models paving the future for precision healthcare
Depolymerisation of waste natural zeolite rock and green conversion to synthetic zeolite
Transforming Spaces in STEM through Play and Purpose
Plenty of fish in the sea? Using mathematics to save the ocean, educate, and communicate with the masses.
The unexpected value of climate change adaptation heuristics
From molecules to the mind: using big data towards earlier autism diagnosis
Securing food for future generations
Inspiring tomorrow's innovators
Impacts of biochar on soil carbon pools and nitrogen transformation in viticulture of South East QLD
Taking Cutting-Edge STEM out of the labs and onto the streets!
Fighting creepy with crawly: using spider venoms to make next-generation antiparasitic drugs
Trimming the Fat: targeting novel genetic factors and molecules that drive obesity
Indigenous climate change adaptation
Fishing for plastics: from ocean to plate
Taming weeds without herbicides
People in focus: protecting the eyesight of people with diabetes
Sustainable livestock production and gender equity, hand in hand
Mission inflammation: guarding against collateral damage in infection
Spinifex grass: hidden gold in the Australian landscape
Investigating the effect snake venom has on our blood to help develop new life-changing medicines
Saving the ageing brain
STEM education and engagement
Sticky toffee causing power "outages" in diabetes
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