Natural Hazards Research Australia Awards
Recognising high quality research making Australian communities safer, more resilient and sustainable
Natural Hazards Research Australia drives collaborative, end-user driven research with real-world impact. These awards celebrate exceptional research and teamwork that enables research to be used to support better decision making to save lives and protect communities. Awards will be presented at the 2026 Natural Hazards Research Forum in Adelaide, 10-12 June 2026.
Three award categories will be presented.
Natural Hazards Research Australia Research Team Award
A research project that demonstrates excellence in:
- Outstanding research quality
- Collaboration and engagement between researchers and end-users to ensure the research is useful
- Translation of the research findings to ensure the research is usable
- Research outcomes and impact ensuring that the research is used.
Eligibility
- Recipient of funding from Natural Hazards Research Australia or the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC at time of submission
- Within five years of research completion
- Submission must include two referee statements of support (as PDF attachments).
Assessment criteria
- Outstanding research quality (25%)
- Collaboration and engagement between researchers and end-users to ensure the research is useful (25%)
- Translation of the research findings to ensure the research is usable (25%)
- Research outcomes and impact ensuring that the research is used (25%).
Natural Hazards Research Australia Postgraduate Student Award
A postgraduate student project that demonstrates excellence in:
- Outstanding research quality, including but not limited to publication in high quality publications
- Collaboration and engagement between researchers and end-users to ensure the research is useful
- Translation, or potential to translate, the research findings to ensure the research is usable
- Research outcomes and impact ensuring that the research is used.
Eligibility
- Recipient of a Natural Hazards Research Australia scholarship or membership of the Associate Program
- Within three years of completion of postgraduate studies
- Submission must include two referee statements of support (as PDF attachments).
Assessment criteria
- Outstanding research quality, including but not limited to publication in high quality publications (25%)
- Collaboration and engagement between the postgraduate student and end-users to ensure the research is useful (25%)
- Translation, or potential to translate, the research findings to ensure the research is usable (25%)
- Research outcomes and impact ensuring that the research is used (25%).
Natural Hazards Research Australia Leading to Impact Award
The Leading to Impact Award recognises an individual or organisation that:
- Demonstrates exemplar leadership and engagement in research translation for impact
- Translates research into practice
- Delivers measurable impact
- Contributes to improved disaster resilience across Australia.
Eligibility
- Open to individuals, teams or organisations classified as end users (e.g., emergency services, government agencies, community organisations, industry).
- Nominee must have engaged with Centre-supported research within the past five years.
Assessment criteria
- Clear evidence of how research has been applied to policy, planning, operations or community outcomes (30%)
- Collaboration and partnerships strengthened across sectors (20%)
- Innovative approach(es) to translating research into practice and developing new tools (15%)
- Leading evidence-based decision making and mentoring (15%)
- Long-term change (10%)
- Active participation in Centre programs, advisory groups, workshops and/or events, sharing knowledge and lessons learned with the broader Centre community, supporting the Centre’s mission and values (10%).
Previous winners
2025
Student Research Award (joint winners)
Two submissions were considered of equal merit for the 2025 Student Research Award, reflecting the exceptional standard of emerging research talent in the natural hazards field.
Dr Kiam Padamdsey was recognised for his research into the impacts of smoke exposure to firefighters. Dr Padamdsey's work has achieved remarkable academic impact, with more than 740 citations from researchers worldwide.
The research has generated significant practical outcomes, informing a research project with Western Australian government department to better understand contamination risks for firefighters. The research findings from this project were used to make an unprecedented decision to procure and deploy P3 respiratory protection for firefighters ahead of the 2024-25 fire season.
The research has also influenced operational practices, with washing machines being installed and onsite showering encouraged in Western Australia, generating international interest in these personal protective equipment and behavioural changes.
Dr Nouman Khattak was awarded for his research project on characterisation and seismic vulnerability assessment of existing unreinforced masonry buildings in Queensland.
Dr Khattak's research produced two major outcomes: a specialised seismic vulnerability assessment framework for these buildings; and improved emergency preparedness insights for at-risk building stock. The work has resulted in publications in high-impact structural engineering journals and presentations to the Australian Earthquake Society conference.
Dr Khattak has developed clear plans for enabling consistent seismic vulnerability assessment across Australia and supporting national emergency response coordination, with potential application in considering building stock resilience to severe wind events such as cyclones.
Research Project Team Award (joint winners)
Two submissions were considered of equal merit for the 2025 Research Team Award, both demonstrating outstanding collaboration between researchers and end-users to deliver practical solutions for emergency management.
Predictions in public: Understanding the design, communication and dissemination of predictive maps to the public is delivering practical guidance that emergency management agencies can readily implement to improve public information during bushfire emergencies, ultimately enhancing community safety and resilience.
The project highlights opportunities for strong project delivery using a co-design approach between researchers and end-users, demonstrating a new model for university-government collaboration in disaster research. The project's 'Design Principles' address a critical gap in existing resources, embedding guidance and consistency in map design into the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience's national doctrine on public information and warnings.
Bushfire risk at the rural-urban interface is tackling a complex challenge of significant interest following the California fires earlier this year. The project focuses on challenges facing Hobart and demonstrates opportunities for rapid lesson learning and disaster risk reduction through engaging communities in property-based garden management.
The team has produced diverse outputs for decision makers and community members, including garden fire hazard assessment using an app, house loss analysis, ember attack simulation and fire spread modelling. This project and others carried out by the team were recognised with a 2024 Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience National Resilient Australia Awards, winning the National Research for Impact Award.