MyScience wins BHERT Best Education and Training Collaboration award for 2008

MyScience was awarded the 2008 Best Education and Training Collaboration at the Business and Higher Education Round Table (B-HERT) Awards ceremony on Friday November 21, 2008.

Anne Forbes accepts the BHERT award on behalf of the MyScience team

The B-HERT awards recognize outstanding achievements in collaboration between business and higher education in the fields of Research and Development, Education and Training and Community Engagement.   The criteria for judging collaborations as worthy of an award are innovativeness, the strength of the relationship between collaborating partners, outreach inclusion, wider outcomes achieved and cultural impact on the partner/organization.
The purpose of the B-HERT is to pursue initiatives that will advance the  goals and improve the performance of both business and higher education for  the benefit of Australian society.  B-HERT is the only body where leaders  of Australia’s business, research, professional and academic communities come  together to address important issues of common concern, to improve the  interaction between Australian business and higher education institutions, and  to help guide the future directions of higher education.  In pursuing this mission B-HERT aims to influence public opinion and government policy on selected issues of importance. B-HERT believes that a prerequisite for a more prosperous and equitable society in Australia is a more highly-educated  community.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Julia Gillard,  in her address at the Awards gala dinner challenged universities and business to work more closely with schools, including primary schools. This is in line with recent media comments from the new Chief Scientist Professor Penny Sackett, Rupert Murdoch, and Heather Ridout (Australian Industry Group).