The Defence & National Security Workforce Awards, in conjunction with event stakeholders Australian Aviation, Cyber Daily, Defence Connect, Space Connect, Momentum Media and a panel of leading professionals, have developed a robust awards methodology to form the backbone for assessing, analysing and benchmarking Australia’s leading professionals and businesses.
The judging criteria for award categories are both quantitative and qualitative, acknowledging growth, business development, diversity, leadership, innovation, business excellence and contributions to Australia’s defence and national security sector.
All businesses and professionals that meet eligibility criteria from across Australia’s defence and national security industry are encouraged to participate in the awards program.
To view all award categories, click here.
Criteria for all award categories, including questionnaire and required supporting information, can be downloaded here.
Australia’s defence and national security sector is given the opportunity to nominate a friend, colleague or peer for the Defence & National Security Workforce Awards.
The defence industry is informed of the opening of the nominations for the events program via Defence Connect, with additional marketing of the event distributed via social media, partners, industry stakeholders, online media and other channels for the industry. The objective is to ensure inclusiveness and wide participation from across Australia’s defence and national security industry.
Nominations can be made directly by an individual or company. If you would like to nominate a business partner, colleague, industry participant, business, sub-contractor, university, association or any connected eligible entity for an Defence & National Security Workforce award, click here.
Nominating is easy and will take less than a minute; nominations across multiple categories can be done in one form.
NOTE: Self-nominating participants that meet eligibility criteria can move directly from stage 1 to stage 3.
Nominees are offered the opportunity to provide a submission for those award categories they are nominated for or wish to participate in if self-nominating.
Nominees (businesses or individuals) can, where relevant, submit for multiple award categories where they meet the award’s criteria. To review all category details, click here.
Submissions do take time and effort. Expect each nomination to take up to three to four hours; some category submissions may take longer. Participants are encouraged to make fewer submissions but at a higher standard and quality to best ensure positive performance in the awards program.
All submissions are electronic and must be received through our secure awards platform by 5:30pm AEDT on Thursday, 13 February 2025.
The awards platform is safe and secure. It’s ISO/IEC 27001 certified, compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), PCI DSS, and more. No information received via the awards process or portal is used for any reason other than for assessing the submission and is only shared with those judges that are judging each specific award.
All submissions undergo a thorough audit process, checking demographic and other information against category eligible criteria based on the information provided in the submission.
Those submissions deemed eligible against submission criteria are reviewed and assessed by a panel of Momentum Media events and editorial team members and executives, plus industry stakeholders where required, to determine the finalists for each category.
The number of finalists varies for each award category.
Finalists are contacted directly by the Momentum Media team advising that they are finalists. Finalists are then announced publicly via Defence Connect and the Defence & National Security Workforce Awards website. Finalists will be announced in March 2025.
All finalists will be emailed a finalist’s pack with seals and other collateral to support their marketing and other promotions associated with securing a finalist position at the Defence & National Security Workforce Awards.
Finalist submissions are delivered to a panel of respected professionals and business leaders, who assess each submission against the criteria of each award category. The judging panel can be viewed here.
The judges score each part of the submission across the category’s criteria, giving an aggregated score. A number of judges will individually assess each submission for each category, offering a blended score and assessment.
The combined judging scores for each submission for each category are tabulated, with the highest-scoring submission deemed the winner.
One winner will be announced per award category, with the awards presented at the Defence & National Security Workforce Awards 2025 black tie event. For full details on the event, click here.
For additional details on the methodology or for any information regarding your submission, please contact our team here.