We acknowledge our diverse developer community and especially encourage submissions from under-represented individuals and groups, and new software developers from academia, industry or government.

• The application can be from an individual or a team but the Lead Applicant must be an early career ecologist (ECE)
• The Lead Applicant (i.e. first named) must be an ESA member at time of application, and commit to presenting and/or demonstrating the software at the annual ESA conference if they win the award.
• Software must be distributed with an open source license (as described at https://opensource.org/licenses), actively developed and maintained. This means that users would not need to buy a license for any software in order to run the submitted code.
• The work must be:
  • funded or supported by Australian funders or through Australian institutions, or
  • conducted by researchers residing in Australia, or affiliated with an Australian institution while they wrote the software.
• There is no specific programming language required.

• The Lead applicant must demonstrate they meet the ECE eligibility requirement (i.e. no more than 10 years full-time equivalent post-PhD).
• The software makes a clear impact for the practice of ecology or application of ecological principles to conservation.
• The software tackles an important ecological problem (theoretical or applied), and has a clear purpose.
• The software is easy to install and use.
• Documentation is publicly available and contains high quality instructions and examples of usage.
• Details clarifying how to cite or otherwise acknowledge the software must be provided.
• Code is well-structured and clearly documented.
• The software supports and adheres to principles of reproducibility and interoperability. That is, analyses performed can be readily shared and reproduced by others, and software systems.

The application will be submitted via the ESA website and needs to include the following.

• A brief description of the importance of the software to the practice of ecology or ecological management, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the new contribution compared to existing implementations (<400 words).
• An installable software product (e.g. package or web app) with its source code for use by the judging panel.
• Enough information in the software product to allow the judges to effectively use and evaluate the software (including its design considerations).
• Supporting letters from three users, indicating how they use the software and the benefits it has provided to them.
• Confirmation that the Lead Applicant meets the ECE eligibility requirement.

The award will be overseen by the ESA Board through the VP Next Generation who will recruit an independent judging panel in any year.

PLEASE NOTE: As this is a relatively small grant, we expect that the total funds provided be allocated for the work of the recipient/s and not used for general university administration or indirect cost recovery purposes. We consider that the Government should be providing funds for that purpose.