INCITE Explained: What’s changed in the 35th INCITE Awards

The 35th INCITE Awards have introduced a refreshed category framework designed to better reflect how technology is being developed, applied and scaled across Western Australia today. We explain below what the changes are, and why now.

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For 35 years now, the INCITE Awards have been grounded in the long-standing principles of credibility, fairness and impact. While our values remain, we've updated our awards categories to better reflect the changing world around us.

The updated structure for 2026 strengthens our program's alignment with the national Australian iAwards and Asia-Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards pathways, ensuring WA technology innovators can progress more clearly and confidently onto national and international stages.

Several existing categories have been consolidated or refined to reduce overlap and improve clarity, while new categories have been introduced to reflect emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, industrial technology, and diversity and digital inclusion.

Championing people: 2025 Digital Inclusion Award winner Narelle Henry of Ember Connect with WA Chief Digital Officer Jonas Petersen.

Recognising excellence in tech diversity

On the latter, INCITE has proudly celebrated digital inclusion via an award in its honorary awards program for the past three years. Led by the Western Australian Office of Digital Government in partnership with WAITTA, this was an important lever to pull to give diversity initiatives and conversations a platform within the tech ecosystem.

As the technology industry at-large embeds greater diversity, equity and inclusion into its business as usual processes - recognising the benefits of this to our economies and societies - this honorary award has now transitioned into the mainline awards program.

This shift provides WA a significant opportunity to promote technology innovations that are enriching lives, and recognise these solutions with the same level of importance, integrity and credibility as all project awards.

Why have INCITE's categories changed?

In a similar sentiment to Diversity & Digital Inclusion now being central to the technology sector, the world has changed.

The 35th INCITE Awards continue to assess nominations based on impact, innovation, outcomes, and the people behind the work.

What these technology innovations look like in practice, however, is vastly different to when INCITE started in 1991 and even of the past few years.

We've made tweaks here and there, with the 2025 program receiving one of the biggest changes in the program's 34-year history. Industry, academia and government feedback over the past three years, in particular, is now being reflected in the revised award categories as Western Australia's industry diversification grows.

There are now more opportunities for AgriTech, MedTech, BioTech, diversity initiatives and artificial intelligence to be recognised and celebrate in the INCITE Awards, with strengthened and clarified pathways to national and international programs now provided.

It's about taking WA's tech innovation story into its next chapter.

WA role model: 2025 Tech Company of the Year and Research & Innovation (Industry) Award winner Norwood Systems is an example of Western Australian excellence in artificial intelligence development.

Artificial Intelligence Award now part of INCITE

First up: This is not about those who use ChatGPT to write emails, marketing content or otherwise (Editor's note: leave marketing to the human professionals).

Artificial intelligence is now a foundational technology shaping how systems are built, operated and scaled across every sector from industry and research to government and community services.

The introduction of a dedicated Artificial Intelligence category recognises that there is an important distinction between using AI and developing AI capability itself. This category has been created to recognise teams and organisations building the underlying AI models, platforms and technologies that enable broader innovation.

The category aligns with national and international judging programs which have also introduced AI categories as of 2026, ensuring Western Australian tech innovators developing core AI capability can progress through recognised award pathways.

At the same time, it has been adapted to reflect the WA context, recognising applied AI development is occurring across industry, research and emerging technology environments. By introducing this category, the INCITE Awards aim to ensure that foundational AI development - often complex, technical and less visible - is assessed and recognised alongside other forms of applied innovation.

2025 winners: (Left) Clear Carbon won Sustainability & Environmental Impact; Curtin University won Social Impact. Both awards have been amalgamated into the People & Planet Award.

Why INCITE has introduced the People & Planet Award

Technology-led innovation increasingly delivers outcomes that cut across social, environmental and community impact, often addressing multiple challenges at once.

The People & Planet Award has been introduced to streamline the recognition of projects delivering positive outcomes for individuals, communities and the environment. By bringing together previous social impact and sustainability awards, this category reflects how impact-driven innovation is now designed and delivered in practice.

The category focuses on outcomes realised, recognising technology that improves wellbeing, supports inclusion, strengthens communities or contributes to environmental resilience.

This approach allows a wide range of projects — including those in health, AgriTech, BioTech and community services — to be assessed within a single, clear framework. By consolidating these streams, we aim to improve clarity for entrants and judges, reduce duplication, and ensure that impact-focused innovation is assessed consistently and credibly alongside other award categories.

Streamlining categories to reflect how innovation is delivered today

Topping off the revamp for 2026, several INCITE Awards categories have been refined to better reflect how technology, talent and applied innovation now intersect across Western Australia.

The Research & Innovation awards have been streamlined into a single category to recognise both academic and applied research within one merit-based framework. This change reflects the increasingly blurred line between research and real-world implementation, while strengthening alignment with national and international award pathways.

The former Emerging Leader award has been re-positioned as Student Tech Solutions, creating a clearer and more inclusive pathway for university, TAFE and equivalent tertiary students. This change recognises technology projects themselves — not just individuals — and better supports emerging talent progressing into national student awards.

The Technology & Business category has been reintroduced to acknowledge the critical role technology plays in delivering measurable business outcomes across industry. Formerly named Transformation Solutions, this award's return reflects ongoing demand from entrants and industry, and provides a clear pathway into multiple national award streams depending on application and market focus.

Finally, the introduction of a dedicated Industrial Technology category recognises the growing impact of engineered and Industry 4.0 solutions across WA’s industrial, manufacturing, agritech, medtech and resource-linked sectors — an area of innovation now acknowledged in its own right.

Find out more about each category, including downloadable criteria pack, on the INCITE Awards website.

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