Suzanne Lazaroo
4 September 2025: The University of Canberra’s dartR team was named a winner at the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes 2025 last night, taking top spot for a powerful open source tool to analyse genetic data that has advanced research across over 900 peer-reviewed studies.
Professor Bernd Gruber from the Faculty of Science and Technology is project lead and the original creator of the dartR software, which has transformed how data is used – helping to improve breeding programs, protecting endangered species and much more.
Combining powerful application, accessibility and proven impact, the software took out the award in the Australian Research Data Commons Eureka Prize for Excellence in Research Software category. It's one of the newest categories in the awards program, and celebrates the pivotal role software plays in enabling and enhancing scientific discovery.
Working alongside Bernd, the dartR team includes University colleagues Distinguished Professor Arthur Georges, Postdoctoral Research Officer Dr Emily Stringer, Dr Peter Unmack and Ching Ching Lau, along with Luis Mijangos Araujo (Diversity Arrays Technology), Oliver Berry and Floriaan Devloo-Delva (CSIRO), Carlo Pacioni (Arthur Rylah Institute/Murdoch University), Diana Robledo (Monash University), Renee Catullo (University of Western Australia), Eric Archer (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US) and Jesus Castrejon-Figureoa (UNSW).
“We are absolutely stoked and deeply honoured – this award is recognition of years of collaborative effort and the dedication of an incredible international team,” Professor Gruber said.
“This win shows that open source tools like dartR can make a real difference across science, conservation, and beyond. We hope this will help dartR reach even more people – and that it inspires wider use of genomic data to drive discoveries.”
Executive Dean of the Faculty Professor Janine Deakin said that the achievement was testament to the team’s innovation, dedication, and impact in the field.
“The Eureka Prizes are among Australia’s most respected science awards, and this recognition places the dartR team among the very best,” she said.
“This award recognises the incredible work of Bernd and his UC colleagues, along with collaborators from across Australia and internationally. We are incredibly proud of their work and the recognition they have received on a national stage.”
University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor The Honourable Bill Shorten echoed Professor Deakin’s sentiments, calling dartR “a great leveller on the scientific playing field – free, open source software that researchers can use to analyse and shed light on an organism’s genetic structure, function, characteristics and make-up”.
“As the number of dartR downloads indicates, the tool is already driving scientific discovery and insight, and will no doubt now see that impact amplified,” he said.
Video by Liam Budge.
