Australian innovator CSIRO has been awarded the merit of the Public Sector category at the NSW Australian Information Industry Association iAwards, which unearths, recognises and rewards excellence in Australian innovation.

Delivered by Australia’s peak industry representative body for innovation technology, the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), the iAwards is Australia's longest running and most broadly scoped innovation recognition program, promoting excellence in the Australian digital ecosystem.

This year the AIIA transformed the competition to create “THE BIGGEST PITCH” where entrants were asked to submit a three-minute pitch about their innovation solution. In their 27th year, the 2020 iAwards saw a clear focus on innovations that seek to help address the world during and post COVID-19.

The Transformational Bioinformatics group entered the iAwards with innovative new product, (innovation name), that will help to (explain your innovation including what it is, how it helps Australians and what the impact is).

"As Australia’s innovation catalyst, we amplify industry through the use of science and technology. The iAwards will give us the opportunity to showcase VariantSpark to the nation and bring cloud-based Machine-Learning to industry problems" says Dr. Denis Bauer, Transformational Bioinformatics group leader. "VariantSpark has a wide application area in the innovation sector ranging from disease gene detection to the prediction of customer churn or equipment failure. This will enable us to deliver innovation at the speed of cloud."

AIIA CEO, Ron Gauci, said, “2020 has been challenging for so many businesses. The AIIA iAwards entries have seen the incredible ways Australian businesses have innovated during this period and looked for growth. It is important to recognise and award the businesses that have worked so hard to achieve this. There is a need for strong domestic skills and an innovation ecosystem which will allow Australia to compete more competitively on the global scale. We believe our winners are reflective of what Australia has to offer to the world.”

For more information see the VariantSpark product page.