Announcing the 2024 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Excellence in Research Software

The 2024 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Excellence in Research Software, sponsored by the ARDC, is now open for entries. This prestigious award, co-designed by the Australian Museum and the ARDC, celebrates the critical role of software in modern research and scientific discovery.

This is a unique opportunity for software developers and maintainers to gain recognition and rewards for their significant contributions to Australian research. The Eureka Prize aligns with the ARDC’s national agenda to elevate research software as a first-class research output.

The 2023 winners of the Eureka Prize for Excellence in Research Software were Dr Minh Bui and Professor Robert Lanfear, Australian National University, who combined their computer science and biology expertise to develop IQ-TREE2 – free, open-source software that turns DNA data into crucial evolutionary insights.

Prof Lanfear said, “There are hundreds of groups in Australia writing great software. It’s vital we raise the profile of software and convince people that research software is an important output of academic research.”

Learn more about last years’ winners and finalists.

Who Should Enter?

We invite entries from developers and maintainers of established research software, including research software engineers and researchers who code. Nominees can come from diverse backgrounds such as academia, government, industry, citizen science groups, and not-for-profit organisations.

Recognise Software that Accelerates Research

If you’ve benefited from software that supports your research, reach out to the authors and encourage them to submit their work for the Eureka Prize. You can even take it a step further and nominate them directly.

The $10,000 Eureka Prize for Excellence in Research Software is open to both individuals and teams that include an Australian or Australia-based developer or maintainer. Entrants can either enter themselves or be nominated by others.

Software, software projects, software contributions are complex and come in many forms. The eligibility criteria for this award are broad allowing for many types of software, and even levels of contribution to a larger effort. See the eligibility criteria for more detail. 

Learn More

For detailed eligibility criteria and submission guidelines, visit the Australian Museum’s page dedicated to research software entry criteria. Additionally, consider joining a free online information session hosted by the Australian Museum Eureka Prize team on Friday 1 March, 12 – 12:45 pm AEDT – register now.

Entries close on 12 April. Learn more and apply now >

The ARDC is funded through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) to support national digital research infrastructure for Australian researchers.