Queensland Women in STEM Prize

• Submissions open - 10 February 2023
• Submissions close - 24 March 2023 (4pm AEST)
• All entrants contacted and finalists informed – 8-12 May 2023
• Award ceremony - 13 July 2023*

* Finalists must be able to attend the award ceremony to be eligible to receive an award.

The Queensland Women in STEM Prize includes two categories:

1. Judges’ Award: open to STEM professionals who identify as a woman
2. Breaking Barriers Award: open to STEM professionals who identify as a woman and:

• are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage; and/or
• have a disability (as defined under the Disability Services Act 2006); and/or
• are a carer (as defined under the Carers (Recognition) Act 2008).

Highly Commended Award(s) will be bestowed at the discretion of the judging panel to applicant(s) deemed to have demonstrated enthusiasm, dedication and commitment in their chosen field.

The 2023 Queensland Women in STEM Prize is open to any person who:

• identifies as a woman; and
• works or studies in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) field; and
• resides and undertakes STEM activities or research in Queensland; and
• is within the first 15 years of their STEM career.

Applicants may include professionals, scientists, researchers, educators or students from any company, institute, government, university, not-for-profit or educational institution.

The Prize is open to any person within the first 15 years of their STEM career. The following will be considered towards 15 years of STEM career:

• Paid or volunteer work in a STEM role
• Time spent undertaking any formal STEM education or research, including TAFE, undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications.

These 15 years are exclusive of time spent on leave, career breaks and study/work outside a STEM field.

To be eligible for the Breaking Barriers Award the entrant must also identify as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person, as having a disability (as defined under the Disability Services Act 2006); ) or be a carer (as defined under the Carers (Recognition) Act 2008).

Prize money must be spent on professional development – this could be a conference, research field trip, internship, purchasing new software etc. Winners are required to acquit their prize within 12-months.

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.

Submitting a video is required for your entry to be deemed eligible.

Try contacting your organisation's media and communications department who may be able to help in producing and creating your video. Or you can do it yourself by following some of the tips below. You could also review some of the past winners' videos for inspiration.

Here are a few tips for filming your video. Remember, the judges will be assessing your content and your ability to articulate your work in STEM, not your video production skills.

• Use simple, clear, plain English and avoid jargon and acronyms.
• Have only a few key messages in mind which you would like to get across in your video.
• Try to ‘pitch’ your idea in your first sentence. Explain the problem you’re trying to solve, or the ‘why we should care’ aspect of your research, similar to how TEDx or 3 Minute Thesis talks are scripted.
• Standing outdoors or in front of a window on a sunny day will give you great natural lighting.
• Make sure you film video horizontally, not vertically.
• Use a tripod or ensure your assistant holds the phone in both hands. For even better stability get your assistant to lean against a wall or pillar.
• If anyone else is going to appear in your video, make sure you have permission to film them.
• You can save your film in MP4, MOV or AVI file format.
• You may need to borrow a microphone if the camera or phone microphone is low quality. You could use a lapel microphone (pinned on to your collar), or a directional microphone (placed next to or above the camera, pointed at you).
• Use a video editing program such as VideoPad for PC, Apple iMovie for macOS and iOS, HitFilm Express 12 for PC and macOS, and InShot or FiLMiC Pro for iOS and Android.
• When creating your final video, you can insert visual aids (video/still images) of your work place, specimen, locations etc. to help the audience visualise your work and what you do.
• Add captions for accessibility, if possible.

Embedding your video is the only way to present your video. You must upload your video to another site like Youtube, Vimeo or Google Drive first - then follow their instructions to copy the embedding code into the application when it asks you. Links to the help guides to help you find the right code to embed are below:

• For YouTube
• For Vimeo
• For Google Drive

The awards will be determined by a panel of judges, including representatives from:

• Queensland Museum Network
• Office of the Queensland Chief Scientist
• Office for Women and Violence Prevention
• Queensland science community