2026 ACGR Awards for Excellence
The Australian Council of Graduate Research proudly presents the 2026 Excellence in Graduate Research Education awards. These awards were made for the first time in 2017 to publicly promote quality in higher degree research (HDR) supervision, leadership and industry engagement.
The awards recognise and reward excellence in Graduate Research Education, contribute to good practice in HDR supervision and leadership amongst all ACGR member institutions and encourage them to establish their own award programs.
The following awards were presented in 2026:
- Excellence in Graduate Research Supervision, sponsored by ProQuest
- Excellence in Graduate Research Leadership,sponsored by Epigeum
- Excellence in Promoting Industry Engagement in Graduate Research
- Excellence in Graduate Research Programs and Support
- Excellence in Graduate Research Indigenous Excellence and Empowerment
Recipients of each award will also be celebrated at our National Meeting dinner in November. Read about the work of our 2026 winners below.
Dr Dani Milos and Rhiannon Vince
Flinders University
Poche Centre for Indigenous Health
University of Queensland
Professor Lee Hickey
The University of Queensland
Graduate Research Leadership
Sponsored by Epigeum
Professor Kathryn Burdon
University of Tasmania
Graduate Research Supervision
Sponsored by ProQuest
Professor Udoy Saikia
Flinders University
The ACGR also recognised a Highly Commended recipient in 2026:
- Graduate Research School (Supervision Development Team and HDRAC), University of Sydney (Programs and Support)