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The Millennium Technology Prize is the pre-eminent €1 million award focused on technological innovations for a better life.

The world around us never stands still. We have to make sure that the world keeps on moving. We must look forward, find new innovations and push for research that makes new technologies possible. We need technology that helps us stop climate change and harming the environment. We need innovations that are sustainable and accessible for everyone.

We just need to act now.

Millennium Technology Prize is Finland’s tribute to innovations that promote the well-being of people and the planet. The global one-million-euro prize was first awarded in 2004, and its Patron is the President of the Republic of Finland. The prize indicates the crucial role technology and science play in solving the great challenges of the world. Adequate food, energy and materials, a clean environment, and combatting serious diseases are all issues we must not take for granted.

All present and future winners of the Millennium Technology Prize have had the courage and curiosity to explore the world from new perspectives. They are pioneers, people who make scientific knowledge bloom in the form of revolutionary innovations and new technologies, the ones who develop technologies to respond to the greatest challenges of our time, such as climate change.

Technological innovations serve the common good, build bridges across cultural boundaries, and create a better, cleaner and more sustainable world in which everyone has room to live.

The world needs innovations. Innovations for a better life.

  • The Millennium Technology Prize highlights the impact of science and innovations on the well-being and equality of mankind and society. The Prize is awarded for groundbreaking technological innovations that benefit millions of people around the world by:

    • enhancing quality of life 
    • promoting sustainable development, like the efficient use of Earth’s resources, biodiversity, or mitigation of climate change
    • generating applications with global commercial viability
    • creating new accessible socio-economic value
    • stimulating further cutting-edge research and development in science and technology 

    Adherence to an ethical Code of Conduct, if such has been at use at the time of the innovation in the institution or company where the innovation was made.

    Read the full prize criteria here

  • The mission of the Millennium Technology Prize is to celebrate the world’s greatest technological innovations that are crucial in solving global challenges.

    Our vision is that the Millennium Technology Prize is the most prestigious technology prize in the world.

    • The Prize is awarded for technological innovations
  • The Millennium Technology Prize, first awarded in 2004, was established jointly by the Republic of Finland and various academic institutions and high-tech industries in Finland.

prize in numbers

2004
the Millennium Technology Prize was presented for the first time
11
life-changing
winner innovations
1
woman has received
the prize

Partners of the Millennium Technology Prize