About
Launched in 2006, Western Australia's (WA) Innovators of the Year has celebrated local businesses, government entities and young people that have developed an outstanding innovative product, technology or service for 20 years.
The Government Innovation Award is awarded to an innovative WA public servant, or group of public servants, who have created an outstanding innovative novel product, service, or technology that helps improve government services and adds value to public service delivery.
The winner will receive up to five (5) places on the Australian Innovation Management Institute (AIMI): Certified Innovation Catalyst Program.
Meet our finalists
In 2026, there are three finalists for the Government Innovation Award:
SMHS HealthReady Pipeline
South Metropolitan Health Service (SMHS)
HealthReady is an end-to-end health innovation development and validation pipeline designed to help external start-ups, researchers, and innovators produce, test, and refine medical innovations within Western Australia’s public health system. Its purpose is to ensure promising health innovations become “health ready” - clinically relevant, patient-centred, and capable of being implemented in real-world WA health service environments.
Transforming Western Australian underutilised sandalwood seeds into next-generation therapeutic products through advanced chemistry and translational science
ChemCentre
This project establishes Australia's first integrated platform combining genomics, advanced analytical chemistry, bioactivity validation, formulation science and regulatory translation to transform Australian sandalwood seeds from a low-value agricultural by-product into scientifically validated therapeutic ingredients and commercial products. Unlike conventional cosmetic product development, the innovation creates an end-to-end pipeline for discovery, validation, formulation and regulatory readiness, enabling high-value therapeutic products while creating a new circular economy opportunity for Western Australia's sandalwood industry.
WA Vegetation Extent (WAVE) Pilot
Landgate
Moving vegetation extent mapping beyond a pixel-by-pixel search for greenness. Through the WA Vegetation Extent (WAVE) Pilot (the Pilot), the team developed a deep learning semantic segmentation workflow that reads landscape context, texture and structure across whole image scenes. Instead of asking only whether a pixel is green, the model learns spatial patterns that help distinguish sparse native vegetation, disturbed surfaces and natural non-vegetated areas in a landscape where conventional approaches struggle.
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