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Atlassian Online Innovation Challenge 2021 – Corporate Innovation Challenge Winners

Across 20th April and 4th May, Conservation Volunteers Australia ran our second Online Corporate Innovation Challenge, proudly supported by Atlassian, to celebrate Earth Day 2021!

This year’s challenge focused on creating innovative approaches to help increase participation in CVA’s Citizen Science programs and strengthen biodiversity restoration.

What is Citizen Science?

About the Challenge

During the challenge, participants had access to an exclusive masterclass session and received online guidance to support innovative thinking and help address the challenge question:

How can we increase the number of Australians actively participating in Citizen Science opportunities to protect and restore biodiversity?

CVA asked teams of up to 5 participants to come together with their colleagues to tackle this engagement challenge and continue to connect people with nature. Using their combined strengths and skills, corporates took on competing teams across a variety of industries and expertise to develop the most innovative response in one of the below category options:

• Option 1: A technical innovation
• Option 2: A marketing and communications innovation
• Option 3: An education and or community engagement innovation

Teams had 4-hours to complete this challenge and submit a response.

 

 

The Winners

Over a 4-hour period, teams went from brainstorming their ideas to creating a persuasive slide-deck presentation on a platform of their choice outlining their innovation.

1st Place

And the winner is…… Team The Bandicoots from NRMA Insurance!

Congratulations to The Bandicoots (representing NRMA Insurance and IAG, Australia’s largest general insurer) for their education innovation that brings university students on board with CVA’s current Future Stewards campaign as part of a 3-month ‘Future Stewards Internship’ program. This internship program will upskill university students by allowing them to participate in CVA’s Citizen Science programs so they can they empower and educate primary school students to help them become future nature stewards for the environment. Both university students and primary school students will gain invaluable skills and learnings that are attained through their regular curriculums.

‘The challenge was, surely, quite challenging but it pushed the team to be creative with the solution and learn from one another.’

– Team Bandicoots, NRMA Insurance

In recognition of their win, team The Bandicoots have won an innovation award produced by Wathaurong Glass & Arts, an Aboriginal cooperative based in Geelong, and their ‘Future Stewards Internship Program’ innovation will be implemented by CVA as part of our Eastern Barred Bandicoot program at Woodlands, Victoria.

2nd Place

Team Water took out second place with their technical innovation ‘iNat Geo’, which builds on an existing data collection platform to increase the visibility of iNaturalist-based citizen science opportunities nearby by reminding people to look for animals as they move around.

The data collected would be shared with the Atlas of Living Australia, which partners with the iNaturalist app and iNaturalist Network. ‘iNat Go!’ extends the existing iNaturalist leaderboard, improving gamification with reward badges, promoting friendly competition to engage users and extend participation.

Next Steps

Thank you to everyone who participated. Our Future Stewards team is looking forward to implementing the innovation from The Bandicoots and updating our community on how it goes.

We’re looking forward to exploring the ideas that surfaced in the challenge, to take the hard work work of the teams and give them a pathway to making an impact. If you want to follow the journey and get involved in our current offerings, head to our citizen science page to find out more.