The Australian finalists for the Research Got Talent Award competition, the Association of Market and Social Research Organisations (AMSRO) and the global ESOMAR Foundation’s exciting new venture, were announced this week.

The competition, which has launched in Australia for the first time this year, encourages young professionals to use market research and insights to support local charities and NGOs overcome pressing social issues. The research aims to assist change in a range of areas including gender inequality, access to justice and education, integration and diversity, environmental issues and climate change. The young researchers were required to submit a project proposal about the issue facing the charity/ NGO and how they would conduct research to assist them in overcoming this issue. Entries were required to reflect a relevant, innovative, and impactful research design project that assesses the organisation’s specifc issue.

The finalists (in alphabetical order) are:

• Allie Dunn from Enhance Research for her entry – Prostate Cancer Awareness in association with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA)
• Samantha Skalak and Oliver Tan from ORIMA Research for their entry – Building the capacity of schools and early years centres to engage with the externalcommunity in association with Ardoch
• Stephanie Perry from Ipsos for her entry – Reaching out to elderly Australians in association with spur:org

Finalists will go through to the next round of virtual judging on Wednesday 6 May 2020. One winner will be selected and entered into the Research Got Talent global competition. Winners from the global competition will take to the stage at the ESOMAR Congress to present their work to an international audience.

The competition is open to young research professionals aged 18-35, who are AMSRO member organisation employees or work for an ESOMAR Australian-based member (individual or corporate). Entrants can work individually or in a pair.

Sarah Campbell, AMSRO Executive Director, said: “The Research Got Talent Award competition is a great avenue for young researchers who want to make a difference. Our judges were looking for innovative projects that addressed a prominent social issue and had the potential to make changes to the organisations they supported.  We had an exceptionally strong field of entrants, many of which addressed the COVID-19 pandemic and demonstrated the incredible value of research during times of crisis. These young researchers have submitted excellent ideas and we look forward to the final round.”

Australian judges for Research Got Talent include Dianne Gardiner, CEO | Bastion Insights; Caroline Tomiczek, Director | Urbis; Lisa Lewers, CEO | Lewers; Nora Hungershoefer, CS Manager | LUCID; Rob McLachlan, Chair | Kantar Australia and Sally Joubert, CEO | Luma Research.

AMSRO and ESOMAR would like to acknowledge and thank all of the entrants for their outstanding submissions and their respective member organisations for supporting this new joint initiative.  We would also like to thank the generous sponsors for helping make the Australian competition possible – Lewers, Luma Research and LUCID.

In support of those people affected by the bushfire crisis, 50% of all entry fees received will be donated to The Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund.