66 nominees for European IST prize announced

Independent experts from Euro-CASE have proposed 66 nominees for the European Information Society Technologies Prize to the European Commission.

The prize is the most distinguished award for groundbreaking products that represent the best of European innovation in information society technologies. It is organised by Euro-CASE, a European non-profit organisation of national academies of Engineering, Technologies and Applied Sciences from 19 European countries, with the support and sponsorship of the IST Programme of the European Commission.

The proposals were among 213 submitted from 29 countries. They are listed on www.ist-prize.org .

The EISTP nominees have successfully gone through the thorough, highly competitive evaluation procedure resulting in the quality label "Nominee for the European IST Prize". They receive valuable public visibility and media coverage.

From among the 66 EISTP Nominees, Euro-CASE will propose 20 Nominees for the European IST Grand Prize to the European Commission. The nominees for the European IST Grand Prize will be announced on the European IST Prize Website on Thursday. They will exhibit their products at the European IST Prize Exhibition at the European Commission in Brussels from December 1-30.

Euro-CASE will propose three of the 20 nominees for the Grand Prize as Grand Prize Winners to the European Commission.

The European IST Prize Awards Ceremony will take place on March 23, 2006, at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. The European Commission will select up to 20 EISTP winners and up to three Grand Prize winners.

Experience from the past 11 years demonstrates that the European IST Prize facilitates the start-up phase and access to finance for the nominees, winners and Grand Prize winners. The criteria of innovation and market potential used for the European IST Prize reveal solidity and sustainability.