Awards night abuzz with praise for citizen science program

A citizen science program increasing the knowledge of Australia's diverse ecosystems has been recognised at the 2024 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.

Insect Investigators, a collaborative partnership including the University of Adelaide, University of the Sunshine Coast, South Australian Museum, Queensland Museum, Western Australian Museum, Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board and Western Australian Gould League, won the Department of Industry, Science and Resources Eureka Prize for Innovation in Citizen Science.

As part of the program, regional schools across South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland help to collect specimens of invertebrates using Malaise traps, which are then sent to expert taxonomists for identification.

When new species are found, the students are then given an opportunity to help name the specimens.

"There are more than 200,000 species of insect in Australia, but most don't have names and we don't know enough about them," said Program Manager Dr Erinn Fagan-Jefferies, of the University of Adelaide's School of Biological Sciences.

"Many of the insects we find are new to science and students have named 17 new insect species across Australia since 2019 through Insect Investigators.

"The 1,800 students from 54 schools have helped increase knowledge of Australia’s biodiversity by documenting more than 5,000 insect species using DNA."

Dr Fagan-Jefferies said she was delighted with the award win which was presented at a gala presentation in Sydney on Wednesday, 4 September.

"It's wonderful for our project team, but most importantly the teachers and school students, to be recognised with this award," she said.

"Insects are so important to our world but often go unnoticed, and it’s fantastic to be able to celebrate the work we did together with schools to highlight Australia’s insect biodiversity."

"There’s still so much work to be done before we really understand all of the insects in Australia, and we’re excited to continue working with citizen scientists to document all the wonderful species around us."Insect Investigators Program Manager Dr Erinn Fagan-Jefferies, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research) at the University of Adelaide Professor Anton Middelberg congratulated the team for its win.

"The University of Adelaide is proud to be involved in such an outstanding program," he said.

"The Insect Investigators team highly deserves this Eureka prize for its work in citizen science, which inspires the next generation of researchers and helps improve our understanding of Australia's biodiversity."