Pioneering biomaterials and tissue engineer Professor Hala Zreiqat has won the 2018 NSW Premier's Award for Woman of the Year.

The Sydney University professor has been internationally recognised for her contributions to regenerative medicine and translational orthopaedic research, having founded the University's Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials Research Unit in 2006.

She has also been described as a trailblazer in championing opportunities for women in the field, becoming the first female president of the Australian and New Zealand Orthopaedic Research Society.

Professor Zreiqat grew up, studied and worked in Jordan before moving to Sydney to undertake a PhD in Medical Sciences — a decision that transformed her life.

She said it was one of the toughest but most rewarding decisions she had ever made.

Hala Zreiqat grew up, studied and worked in Jordan before moving to Sydney to undertake a PhD in Medical Sciences. ( ABC News: University of Sydney )

"The minute I decided I wanted to leave Jordan and pursue my passion, pursue my career it was the hardest thing I had ever had to make," she said.

"But then coming to Australia, I did not realise that this is the luckiest country in the entire world and every day keeps getting better, and better and better."

'I can only thank the country for this'

She was also the first person in NSW to receive a prestigious Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University where she founded an international network called IDEAL Society dedicated to improving opportunities for women around the world.

"This award just gives you the inspiration to keep developing, keep inventing, keep going further in the world," Professor Zreiqat said.

"Here I am coming from Jordan and discovering something that the whole world is going to use from NSW getting recognised for that, I can only thank the country for this."

Other award winners at the ceremony were Indigenous social worker Julie Shelley for NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year, founder of occupational and environmental hygiene consultancy Regional Enviroscience Juliet Duffy for NSW Regional Woman of the Year and domestic violence campaigner Shaza Rifi for NSW Young Woman of the Year.

Funding doubled for Investing in Women program

Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a doubling of the State Government's Investing in Women program at the awards ceremony.

The program will now provide $400,000 worth of funding to organisations and projects that support the economic empowerment and leadership of women.

Ms Berejiklian said women were leading the way in NSW which has one of the fastest-growing economies in the developed world.

"Out of the 246,000 jobs we've created in NSW over the last three years over 60 per cent of them have been taken by women and many of these are in full-time positions," she said.

"I'm really pleased to say that at the end of last year, the unemployment rate for women in NSW was the lowest since records began in the 1970s."

"Women are being given and are taking more choices, greater opportunities and a better quality of life for themselves and the people around them.

"We have a target of making sure that 50 per cent of everybody in the senior public service are women by 2025. We're at 36 per cent now so we've got to get to 50 per cent by 2025."