• H2020
• Policy & Research

A record number of innovations have been submitted for a €1m technology prize awarded by the Technology Academy Finland (TAF).

A total of 79 projects have been submitted for the Millennium Technology Prize for the end of the 2015 nomination period, with the largest number of submissions in the material and process technologies sectors; health technology and biomedicine were also well represented.

Data also shows that there were considerably more research teams per innovation than before, with the nominations involving 114 people, compared to 45 in 2013. The number of submissions has also nearly doubled, with 40 nominations submitted in 2013.

Commenting, TAF President and CEO Juha Ylä-Jääski said: “The Millennium Technology Prize enjoys great prestige in the international scientific community. We made particularly extensive use of contact networks in this round, focusing on key players in the nomination and meeting personally with university and research institution leaders in Finland and abroad. We also organised presentations of the prize in Los Angeles, CERN and Shanghai. In all this, we received invaluable help from the TAF Board as well as our partners, Aalto University in particular.”

The nomination period ran from 16 March to 31 July 2015, during which time research institutes, universities and companies from all over the world could nominate candidates for the prize; the largest number came from Europe and the United States.

Nominations will now be screened and evaluated by the International Selection Committee, with the winner selected by the TAF board. The winner of the Millennium Technology Prize will be announced in a prize ceremony on 24 May 2016.

More information on the prize can be found here.