25/04-05   -   Pressmeddelande

European IST Prize 2005

The three Grand Prize Winners will be announced on 26 April

Europe’s most distinguished award for innovative ICT products will be presented at the Palace of the Academies in Brussels on 26 April by Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding.

The European IST Prize is organised by Euro-CASE with the sponsorship and support of the Information Society Programme of the European Commission. Euro-CASE is a European non-profit-making organisation of national Academies of Engineering, Technologies and Applied Sciences from 19 European countries.

430 innovative products from 29 countries competed for this year’s European IST Prize. The important number of applications and their high quality confirm the relevance of this Prize for stimulating innovation in European ICT Industry.

The evaluation is made by independent experts nominated by the Euro-CASE academies and agreed by the European Commission which takes the decision. The twenty IST Prize winners exhibited their products at the 2004 IST Event in The Hague last November, received €5,000 each and are nominated for the three Grand Prizes.

The three Grand Prize winners were proposed to the Commission by an Executive Jury consisting of 18 members from 18 countries, nominated by Euro-CASE and agreed by the Commission, chaired by Guy Demuynck, CEO of KPN Mobile. The three Grand Prize winners are of equal rank and will receive €200,000 each

With a total prize amount of €700,000, ten years of uninterrupted growing success, international recognition and huge interest from investors, the European IST Prize is the most coveted of the prizes recognising major achievements in the ICT world of today.

Experience from the past ten years demonstrates that the European IST Prize facilitates the start-up phase and access to finance for the Prize Nominees and Winners. The criteria of innovation and market potential used for the European IST Prize reveal solidity and sustainability and guarantee a valuable quality label to the winners.