TAF opens nominations for the 2020 Millennium Technology Prize

TAF opens nominations for the 2020 Millennium Technology Prize

One of the world’s most important awards for a ground-breaking innovation opens nomination period until 31 July 2019.

(PRESS RELEASE) ESPOO, 1-Apr-2019 — /EuropaWire/ — Today (1 April 2019), nominations for the 2020 Millennium Technology Prize open. The one-million-euro international prize is one of the world’s most important awards for ground-breaking innovations. While being environmentally sustainable, the innovation shall help solve great challenges of humanity. The Millennium Technology Prize is awarded for a technological breakthrough made anywhere in the world and presented every two years.

Three of the winners of the Millennium Technology Prize have subsequently also won the Nobel Prize – most recently Frances Arnold, the 2016 Millennium winner, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018. Arnold’s Millennium Technology Prize winning innovation, directed evolution, enables the production of novel enzymes to be used in environmentally-friendly processes in several industrial sectors. Other former winners of the Millennium Technology Prize include Shinya Yamanaka for the development of ethical stem cells, Tim Berners-Lee for the World Wide Web, and Tuomo Suntola for ALD, a nanoscale technology that enables the manufacturing of modern, high-performance computers and smart devices.

“Winners of the Millennium Technology Prize are leading innovators in their respective industries. With their innovations, they have enhanced the quality of life for humanity as well as conservation of the environment. The winning innovation must have solid evidence of existing practical applications and the potential for generating new research.” comments Technology Academy Finland (TAF) CEO, Ari Ahonen.

Millennium Technology Prize welcomes nominations from organizations anywhere in the world and in all fields of technology except military technology. The nominee can be a single person or a team.

The International Selection Committee, composed of leading experts in research and industry will evaluate the nominees. The President of the Republic of Finland is the patron of the Millennium Technology Prize. The Finnish Government donates the award sum of one million euros.

The 2020 Millennium Technology Prize awarding will take place in Helsinki Metropolitan area, Finland, on 26 May 2020. The prize is awarded by the independent foundation Technology Academy Finland.

Nominations and additional information
The portal and detailed nomination criteria and instructions can be found at millenniumprize.fi/cfn. Nominations can only be submitted via TAF’s electronic nomination portal between 1 April and 31 July 2019.

Detailed instructions and inquiries
Ari Ahonen, CEO, Technology Academy Finland
+358 400 618 300, ari.ahonen(at)taf.fi

Video: Millennium Technology Prize – Call for 2020 Nominations
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SOURCE: Technology Academy Finland TAF