What will I get out of participating in this program?

• Develop innovative solutions to real-world challenges

• Get valuable industry-relevant experiences and skills on your CV

• Network and collaborate with top researchers and industry experts

• Maybe you'll meet your future employer or teammates

​​

Who can register to participate?

• The event is primarily designed for researchers in STEM fields from ARC Centres of Excellence. If you aren't sure if that's you please just reach out to us.

• You'll need your supervisor/manager's approval to take part.

• If you're not in Melbourne, you'll need to ensure your supervisor/manager can cover your flights and accomodation.

• Otherwise - head on over to the sign up page!

​​

How will this program work?

• We will announce up to five industry-relevant research Challenges in Feb 2024, each created with the help of industry subject matter experts.

• Teams will be formed in late February 2024 based on your challenge preferences, skills, and diversity. Then, on March 19-20 a two-day hackathon event brings together all teams, industry experts, and some amazing mentors and facilitators to RMIT Storey Hall in Melbourne for 48 hours of innovation.

• After the Hackathon, winning teams will be announced, with up to $5,000 per team to be awarded for selected teams to develop their ideas further. We'll also provide mentorship and guidance to develop their ideas after the event.

 

How will teams be formed and assigned challenges?

• Participants register as individuals.

• Participants will receive a preference form before the event to indicate which challenges they prefer to tackle and if they have any preferred team-mates.

• Teams will be pre-formed and allocated challenges based on this information

• This approach is designed to maximise team diversity and time for innovating!

​​

When will the program be held and what are the key dates?

• We made a really nice looking timeline below, just scroll down a little bit.

​​

What's the commitment required to participate?

• Researcher participants need to commit to the two-day hackathon.

• The best team for each challenge (as determined by our judges) will be supported after the event to develop their idea. If that's you, it is recommended you put some time in over these six weeks.

• You'll need approval from your supervisor to utilize your time for this event, but that's all explained in the registration form.

​​

What kind of commitment is required from mentors, judges and industry partners?

• Whilst we would love sponsors to make this event as brilliant as possible, to be a mentor, judge or industry challenge partner all we want is your expertise and a commitment to come along for at least a few hours at the in-person event on March 19-20, 2024. 

• We'd love to have your logo on our website, too, as that helps us attract the best researchers and make this event as successful as possible.

​

How will IP be dealt with?

• Based on the open format and ideation nature of the 2-day Hackathon event, IP will be dealt with as it always is when researchers go to conferences and talk to each other about ideas.

• If anything meriting IP protection is developed by a team during the Hackathon, we will facilite introductions with the relevant University technology transfer team(s) after the event.

• Participants will be given a refresher on how research IP works and how to black-box any really innovative ideas they come up with for pitches/submissions. 

• Industry and event partners will be briefed on how to minimise downstream complexity of their team mentoring and judging roles.

​

I have more questions. Where can I learn more?

• Contact us!

• We have a nice glossy brochure as well, link below.