Announcing the Research Awards 2026 Contenders
Quick Links
Research Effectiveness Award | Category: Consumer Insights
Research Effectiveness Award | Category: Public Policy / Social Impact
Research Effectiveness Award | Category: UX Research
Rookie of the Year Award To be announced 8 October 2026
Insights Professional of the Year Award To be announced 12 October 2026
Research Organisation of the Year Award | Categories: Large, Medium & Small To be announced 14 October 2026
Research Partner of the Year Award To be announced 19 October 2026
Young Researcher of the Year Award To be announced 21 October 2026
Luminate Research Article of the Year Award To be announced 26 October 2026
*listed in alphabetical order by company name or surname.
Research Effectiveness Awards
Category: Consumer Insights
| COMPANY | CLIENT | SUBMISSION TITLE | ENTRANTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beaton Research + Consulting | Harrison Grierson | Client listening by design: Engineering an 18% satisfaction surge at Harrison Grierson | Marc Ewen, Jon Huxley, Shanan Kan |
| Fiftyfive5 part of Accenture Song | Colonial First State | Becoming the Trusted Navigator: Breaking Conventions in Retirement to Unlock Superfund Growth | Jordan McVaigh, Shlomo Shellim, and Mat Densten |
| Fiftyfive5 part of Accenture Song | Blackmores | Blackmores SPARK 2.0 | Dominic McCarthy, Therese Rapp, Rania Khalaf, Ikhnoor Zaman, Damian Frankcom, Todd Eldridge, Karen Phillips and Lee Naylor |
| Honeycomb Strategy | MUJI | MUJI: Seeing more to unlock growth | Jason Morris, John Bevitt, Sonja Ryals, Joyce Prescher, Luca Noonan, Jacqueline Nguyen (Honeycomb Strategy) and Mae Mizuno Li, Ashley Wong (Muji) |
| Lewers | Belong | Moving from whimsical to data rich: how research guided Belong’s next creative evolution | Lisa Lewers, Shaun Seixas, and Kristian Panagiotou |
| Nature | Tasmania Football Club | Better the Devil You Know: How Research Shaped the AFL’s 19th Club | Sam Foote, Chris Crook |
| Nature | RSPCA Australia | Making Higher Welfare Easier to Choose: The RSPCA Certified Board Transformation | Lizi Pritchard and Aliya Hasan |
| Scentre Group | Westfield | How Westfield built a Customer Insights Ecosystem | Jenny Jim |
| Square Holes | Wine Australia | Rebuilding wine’s relevance in Australia’s on-premise | Jason Dunstone, Dylan Jacob (Square Holes) and Peter Bailey, Anthony Turbill (Wine Australia) |
| The Behavioural Architects | SunRice Group | SunRice & The Behavioural Architects – Forming New Habits with “One More Rice Meal” | Shane Sinnott |
| The Research Agency | Edgewell | Insight-led growth: From Needstates to Get It Done and Schick Speed 5 | Tara Howes, Gemma Hall, Charlotte Saunders, Terri Hall (TRA) and David Took, Max Prinz (Edgewell) |
Category: Public Policy / Social Impact
| COMPANY | CLIENT | SUBMISSION TITLE | ENTRANTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiftyfive5 part of Accenture Song | MoH | From Hesitation to Action: Giving Patients and Carers Permission to Escalate in NSW Hospitals | Rebecca Hitchmough and Corey Fisher |
| Fiftyfive5 part of Accenture Song | Raise the Age | Incarcerated at Ten: How research turned an unknown injustice into a movement for change | Estelle Gohil, Rebecca Hitchmough, Katelynn Fuller |
| HumanListening & Evolved Thinking | CFA Volunteers Group Inc. | Ready for Fire Season: giving Victoria’s volunteer firefighters an evidence base before the state election | Garreth Chandler (HumanListening & Evolved Thinking) and John Houston (CFA Volunteers Group Inc.) |
| Insightfully | The Pharmacy Guild of Australia | Insightfully’s Cheaper Medicines Research | Leanne White, Angela Han |
| Quantum Market Research | Our Watch | From Awkward to Action: Talking Boundaries | Tom Leslie, Mary Evans (Quantum Market Research) and Alice Drew (Our Watch) |
| Quantum Market Research | Urban Utilities | From Tracking Trust to Transforming Decisions | Richard Frost (Quantum) and Darren Cook (Urban Utilities) |
| So What Research | Rare Cancers Australia | From anecdote to evidence: quantifying Australia’s rare cancer experience to drive policy action and social change | Saskia Koller, Leanne D’Aguiar, Gerry Guinan (So What Research) and Jane Weber, Sarah Benger, Christine Cockburn, Laura Cohalan (Rare Cancers Australia) |
| Square Holes | Maggie Beer Foundation | HomePlate Insights: Understanding what helps and hinders older Australians to eat well at home | Dylan Jacob, Jason Dunstone (Square Holes) and Jane Mussared, Clare Fargher (Maggie Beer Foundation) |
| The Behavioural Architects | NSW Rural Fire Service | One Ember Can End It – Changing the Mental Model of Bush Fire Risk To Create A More Prepared NSW Community | Mike Daniels |
| The Behavioural Architects | Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure | NSW Government | Taking Care of Street Trees: The Forgotten Part of Sydney’s Urban Canopy | Georgie Daniels |
| The Lab | ABC | From Drowning in Data to Deciding Differently, Australia, Understood | Andrew Therkelsen (The Lab) and Elaine Lau (ABC) |
| The Lab | VGCCC | Changing the odds: How research shifted gambling harm from personal responsibility to practical prevention | Emily Gillingham and Paul Labagnara |
| Whereto Research | Home Affairs | When research saved a program changing thousands of lives | Catherine Boekel, Settlement Grants, Department of Home Affairs. |
| Whereto Research | Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing | National Strategy to Practical Reform: How research shaped the implementation of Australia’s first National Autism Strategy | Penny Burke and Erin Beggs |
| Whereto Research | Department of Families, Fairness and Housing | From insight to action: The behavioural research that shaped Victoria’s ‘Parental Guidance Required’ initiative | Charles Coulton, Penny Burke, Sarah Tudor, Daniel Kobrin, Kathryn Hull, Billy Maulio (Whereto) and Georgia Ride, Emma Ward (Department of Families, Fairness and Housing) |
Category: UX Research
| COMPANY | CLIENT | SUBMISSION TITLE | ENTRANTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiftyfive5 part of Accenture Song | NEMA | Living with Floods, Bushfires and Cyclones: Designing Resilience Tools Australians Actually Use | Joanne Upton |
| Honeycomb Strategy | AGL | The role of UX across the customer journey: unlocking AGL’s growth through behavioural alignment | John Bevitt, Renata Freund, Sonja Ryals, Jacqueline Nguyen (Honeycomb Strategy) and Julie Hirsch, Jessica Poole, Elaine Wewer, Raymond Kouchoo (AGL) |
| Painted Dog Research | Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) | UX Under Pressure: Designing Emergency WA for the Moments That Matter | Ruben Droogmans |
| The Behavioural Architects | Northern Beaches Council | Making E-bike riding safer for pedestrians | Mike Daniels |
Research Rookie of the Year Award
To be announced 8 October 2026
Insights Professional of the Year Award
To be announced 12 October 2026
Research Organisation of the Year Award
Small Organisation & Large Organisation
To be announced 14 October 2026
Research Partner of the Year Award
To be announced 19 October 2026
Young Researcher of the Year Award
To be announced 21 October 2026
Luminate Article of the Year Award
To be announced 26 October 2026