Technology Academy Finland opened the nomination period for the 2016 Millennium Technology Prize earlier this month. Nominations for the prize can be made by universities, research institutes and other academic actors as well as companies all around the world. The prize is open to all fields of technology and all nationalities. The nominee can be an individual researcher or a research group. Nominations are accepted until 31 July 2015. The winner will be announced in April 2016.
Awarded every two years, the one million euro Millennium Technology Prize is one of the largest science and technology prizes in the world. It was awarded for the first time in 2004. The prize is awarded for disruptive technological innovations that help solve the great challenges of humankind and support sustainable growth. A winning innovation must have a track record of practical applications and must accelerate further research.
The winners are leading researchers in their fields, typically at an active phase in their career. Two winners of the Millennium Technology Prize were subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize: Shuji Nakamura, who received the Millennium Technology Prize back in 2006, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014, and Shinya Yamanaka, a stem cell researcher and the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize winner, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2012.
Nominations for the Millennium Technology Prize are screened and evaluated by an International Selection Committee composed of leading researchers representing different scientific disciplines and geographic areas. A key criterion in the evaluation is that the innovation has proved beneficial to a large part of humankind and that it promotes sustainable growth. After a thorough process of evaluation, the Committee makes its recommendation on the winner to the Board of Technology Academy Finland, which selects the winner.
Nomination criteria and documents can be found online at http://www.millenniumprize.fi/cfn.
Technology Innovation International 