New capabilities for a modern Academy

The lifeblood of any Learned Academy is our Fellows. They are exceptional achievers, elected in recognition of their significant contributions; they are the people leading us into an innovative future. Academies are membership organisations like no other.

Our Fellows contribute their significant expertise pro bono, to enable us to provide thought leadership and timely, evidence-based, independent expert advice supporting Australia’s decision-makers to navigate complex challenges.

Our responsibility as the Academy for Australia’s leaders in applied science, technology and engineering is to give them the best possible experience: in how they are invited to contribute their expertise, engage with each other and contribute to supporting the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering 's (ATSE's) work – whether it’s expertise via policy submissions and media commentary, mentoring recent graduates or assessing applications to our grants, scholarships, and awards.

To help the best of the best give their best, we’ve undertaken a complete rethink of the ATSE website. This multi-year project has created a powerful digital space both for our public presence – bringing that evidence-based advice to the breadth of society – as well as a seamless interface for our Fellows. Behind a secure login, our new website allows Fellows to access information designed specifically for them; easily connect with opportunities to contribute to our work in the most meaningful and appropriate ways; connect with each other; discuss emerging issues; and keep their details up to date. It’s enhancing our collaboration opportunities on emerging issues and providing a wealth of expertise for website visitors to explore and draw upon.

Incorporating our Fellows web portal into our primary site was a core aim of this project, but it wasn’t the only major outcome.

As well as our trusted knowledge broker role, for more than 15 years, ATSE has delivered highly regarded education, skills and careers programs; inspiring, educating and building pathways for the applied science, technology and engineering-empowered workers of the future. We’ve also provided grants, connections and workshops to help Australian innovators collaborate internationally and bring their work to the world.

To reflect the importance of these initiatives to our mission to help all Australians understand and use technology to solve complex problems, we brought our cluster of program websites under a single ATSE umbrella, aligning with our vision for a united one-organisation approach. Our work to connect graduates to industry leaders for mentoring and professional development (IMNIS) and our hands-on secondary school education program (STELR), core functions of ATSE for many years, are now seamlessly incorporated into atse.org.au.

Over the last 5 years especially, our footprint and impact has grown. We now run four distinct programs supporting STEM teaching, employment and industry career paths: along with IMNIS and STELR, we also run the massively popular Elevate scholarship program supporting women and non-binary people to study STEM subjects at university, and the Emerging Leaders Network giving new opportunities for early-career STEM leaders to learn from established leaders of Australian science, technology and engineering. We also contribute dozens of submissions, reports and explainers to federal and state parliamentarians and industry bodies each year. All of this work, supported by numerous partners and sponsors, needed an updated home.

Our new website provides easy access to ATSE’s STEM expertise, strategic advice, STEM careers and international programs, activities, a comprehensive directory of all our Fellows, and more. It’s all built on a solid technical foundation, providing robust support, easy maintenance and a basis from which we can imagine even more new functionality, such as tailored content for each visitor, an online hub for our IMPACT magazine and purchasing capability of our leading STEM education equipment. We’re acutely aware that, as the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, we need to get the tech right!

As a registered charity, the tax-deductible gifts made by our generous donors are so important to enable us to grow our reach and impact as we work to prepare Australia for a brighter future. If you agree that we need to urgently provide inspiration and opportunities for more Australian students to access quality education, skills, and pathways to be part of a sustainable future, I encourage you to visit atse.org.au/donate, and make a donation to support our work.

I am grateful to contributing Fellows and my team who’ve worked hard to bring our new digital home to life. We’re thrilled to have made this transition and excited to keep improving our online experience, for Fellows and for everyone.

Please do take some time to visit atse.org.au and explore the programs, events, grants and expertise we have to offer.