ARDC-Sponsored Research Software Awards and Prizes

Discover the ARDC-supported awards and prizes for research software engineers and projects.
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The ARDC is proud to sponsor awards for research software and research software engineers in all stages of their careers. The goal of the awards is to strengthen the recognition of research software and those who develop and maintain it as being vital to modern research.

The ARDC continues to sponsor a wide range of research software awards.

Newly Announced Awards

The Ecological Society of Australia (ESA) has an ARDC-sponsored award for New Developers of Open Source Software in Ecology.

2024 winner

Previous winners

Further information

Learn more about this award on the ESA website.

The Statistical Society of Australia (SSA) Bill Venables Award is for new developers of open source software for data analytics, sponsored by the ARDC.

2024 winners

Two developers shared this year’s award, each receiving $2500:

  • Alex Lee for his software whereabouts, a light-weight Python package for bulk geocoding and address standardization
  • Rob Moss for his software pypfilt, which implements several online inference methods that have been used in many scientific fields for real-time forecasting, with the COVID-19 pandemic being one of the most high-profile examples.

Previous winners

Further information

Learn more about this award on the SSA website.

Awards Open for Submission

The Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) has an Emerging Leaders in Astronomy Software Development Prize, sponsored by the ARDC, for early-career researchers (ECRs) who have produced or contributed to new open-source astronomy software.

2025 entries are now open until Friday 14 February.

Who should apply

Early-career researchers (ECRs) who have produced or contributed to new open-source astronomy software

Previous winner

Further information

Learn more about this award on the ASA website.

Awards Opening Soon

Sponsored and presented by the ARDC, the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Excellence in Research Software is awarded for the development, maintenance or extension of software that has enabled significant new scientific research.

2025 timeline

Entries openTuesday 11 February
Entries close7 pm (AEST), Monday 14 April
Finalists announcedThursday 31 July
Winners announced at the 2025 Eureka Prizes Award CeremonyWednesday 3 September

Who should apply

Developers and maintainers of research software

Previous winners and finalists

2024
2023

Further information

Learn more about this award on the Australian Museum website.

Past Awards

This award from the Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society (ABACBS) recognised outstanding early- and mid-career researcher (EMCR) bioinformatics software developer from the Australian community with a view to promoting further efforts to develop and share bioinformatics methodologies.

Winners

Further information

Learn more about this award on the ABACBS website.

This award from Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society (ABACBS) recognised bioinformaticians from the Australian community who provide outstanding levels of support and maintenance for widely used bioinformatics software. This award aims to promote efforts amongst our community members to document, maintain and support high-quality bioinformatics software.

Winners

Further information

Learn more about this award on the ABACBS website.

Start planning your submission now!

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