After much anticipation, The STEM Equity Evaluation Portal, developed by the Office of the Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador, Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith, was launched November 2022.

The launch of the Portal is an important step towards promoting and supporting a culture of evidence-based practice in Australia’s STEM sector, by providing a suite of standardised evaluation tools users can select based on their individual evaluation requirements.

Program leaders can evaluate their programs with confidence and be able to clearly identify if what they’re doing is working, as well as identify gaps, and any opportunities. The Portal also functions as a database of existing STEM equity programs and their efficacy. The Portal is free to use and is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Resources. It functions as an extension, and complement, to the National Evaluation Guide for STEM Equity Programs, which was developed in response to a key recommendation of the Women in STEM Decadal Plan.

NRI, together with The Office of Australia’s Women in STEM Ambassador, worked to deliver a bespoke AWS-based end-to-end solution including implementation, and is now transitioning into day-to-day support of the Portal. Users can search and discover program evaluations from the repository, connect with people leading equity programs, and use the planning and reporting tool to evaluate their own programs.

The Office of Australia’s Women in STEM Ambassador’s Research Associate, Dr. Isabelle Kingsley, says, “since our journey together began in April, the NRI team have worked extremely hard on this project. They embedded me into the development from the beginning and I appreciate their constant professionalism, proactive nature, and patience. It’s been a pleasure and I look forward to our ongoing relationship on this and other Women in STEM Ambassador projects.”