Wow. My eyes picked this one out of the bunch. Very close to the brief! I like the arrangement of the flowers. Very clever and beautiful, but also with a touch of authority, somehow, you did it! I like the font too.
I would like to see a different arrangement though. This one looks good in full view, but when we need to reduce its size to put it in a banner alongside our collaborators, it would reduce the flower and text elements too small, and they need space. Perhaps a wide rectangle - seems to be the trend these days..
I'd like to see the plant in green too, they grey-ish green you can see in the picture (billy buttons). And while I LOVE the button inside the O, what about a mountain top, not too pointy, but with snow on top? This would be suggestive of the area, but also the A in Australia of the organisation's full name - Australian Tundra Experiment).
And lastly - while I like this emblem very much - could you try to make the shape of the plant truer to the actual plant. My clients are scientists...they'll pick me up on that :) Their natural shape, our outline of the base, the stems, to the flower tops is like the shape of this harp: http://www.halloweencostumes.net/discount-angel-harp-accessory.html The flowers all tend to sit at the same height. This will change this shape, but will be an interesting comparison. I hope this one will stay in the options, because we could very well come back to it. It shows a real skill of yours to get it that quickly I think Visartes, very impressed!
PS. We won't need the TM for this one. Yet.
PPS. This is my first logo, and use of logo tournament, so I hope I'm not directing you too much?!
Thanks for these, definately getting close. I like the mountain in the background.
Could you straighten the flower heads, so they're aligned? And any chance we could have one more version, with the acronym (larger) and the full name included. I appreciate this may be too much, but I think it would be worth the scientists being able to see this.