University of Queensland's Mark Kendall, also winner of the manufacturing and high-tech category, was joined by winners across six other categories, all of whom shared in $70,000 prize money to assist their work.

Editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell said the inaugural Innovation Challenge had unearthed some of Australia's best new ideas, reinforcing The Australian's commitment to innovation. "We want to help ensure these ideas aren't left on a shelf but are given the support they need to become a commercial reality," he said.

Professor Kendall's nanopatches contain thousands of tiny projections and require only about one-hundredth the dose needed for a syringe.

"When the nanopatch is applied to the skin, the projections breach our tough outer skin layer to reach our immune 'sweet spot' layers of skin abundantly rich in immune cells," he said.

It is about to undergo clinical trials, and Professor Kendall hopes to be market-ready within five to 10 years.

In the Backyard Innovation category, the judges applauded Jeremy Woodhill's Smart GPOs, remote-controlled switches embedded into powerpoints that enable more efficient energy use.

Sydney University's Marcela Bilek won the Health category by coating the surfaces of biomedical implants with biologically-active molecules to shield them from the immune system, potentially reducing rejection rates.

Gary Kong, of the Co-operative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity, developed a remote microscope network allowing images of diseased plants or exotic pests to be uploaded for examination online.

Interviews with each winner will be published in a special magazine with The Weekend Australian on Saturday.

Industry Minister Kim Carr said firms that innovate are twice as likely to boost their productivity and even more likely to increase their contribution to the community.

"The Australian Innovation Challenge showcased the kind of creative enterprise that is critical to our future as a dynamic, prosperous and outward looking nation," Mr Carr said.

"The fact is the old Australia is gone forever, but that doesn't mean we have to be the victims of chance. I take the view we have an opportunity to make our own luck and for nations like ours we have the opportunity to be defined not by our problems, but by our people. We can adapt, we can thrive and we can rely upon your ingenuity," he told the award winners.

"One of the great joys of doing this job are meeting the many people who are optimistic and enthusiastic about fronting up to challenges. We've seen in this country throughout the last year ... the challenge of climate change, the challenge of European debt, the challenge of providing throughout the globe for seven billion people.

"The fact is we can't go on meeting these challenges without people like you and of course without the technologies that you are bringing with you because the technologies and the practices of the past simply won't do. We can't ignore the impact on our economy, on jobs, on the environment of business-as-usual."

Ann Pickard, country chair of Shell Australia, congratulated the winners. "We are delighted that our support of the Innovation Challenge will enable Australia's innovators to develop and commercialise new ways to meet the challenges that face us as a nation."

Mr Mitchell said The Australian had been interested in innovation since its first edition on July 15, 1964, which included a page of computing news "something unheard of in Australian newspapers at that time, nearly 50 years ago".