17.11.2011

TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY FINLAND CONGRATULATES UK ON NEW ENGINEERING AWARD

Sister award for Millennium Technology Prize

Technology Academy Finland (TAF), the organization that awards the international Millennium Technology Prize, has welcomed the new international engineering award, The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, launched today and to be administered by its sister academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng). The million pound prize will be awarded on alternate years to the Millennium Technology Prize, beginning in 2013.

TAF’s President & CEO Ainomaija Haarla, says the prizes complement each other very well. The awarding criteria for the British award are based on engineering; the criteria for the Millennium Technology Prize are based on recognising technological innovations that are considered to have a favourable impact on humankind. The Millennium Technology Prize will be awarded for the fifth time next June.

”I am pleased that the significance of engineering and technology for society is becoming more widely recognised. Finland and the Millennium Technology Prize were pioneers when the prize was founded in 2002, promoting innovations that improve the quality of life of all humanity. Our prize has been awarded four times and the awarding criteria have stayed consistent: the focus is on our future and in addressing the great challenges of our time. TAF and RAEng share a common goal with our international prizes - to help build co-operative networks between the business sector, scientific communities and the state,” Haarla says.

Finland’s Minister of Economic Affairs Jyri Häkämies says investment in innovations and international co-operation are vital to maintaining Finland’s international competitiveness.

”Finland has decided to base its success strategy on knowledge and expertise. Being a small country, we also have to make investments in both national and international co-operation in order to efficiently share ideas and to transform them into profitable businesses. The Millennium Technology Prize is a groundbreaking prize in the sense that governmental actors and the business sector work together for Finland´s competitiveness. The Ministry of Employment mostly funds the Millennium Technology Prize, and the Finnish industry finances its administration through an investment made in foundation capital and through annual contributions to Technology Academy Finland. The prize is a good example of the public–private partnership model,” Häkämies says.

Ainomaija Haarla says every Finnish university of technology strongly supports the prize.

“The Millennium Technology Prize has increased interest in Finland and Finnish scientists and it has made interesting research projects more accessible for our scientists. At the same time, foreign scientists’ interest in coming to Finland has grown. The Prize increases in a great way Finland's visibility as a hi-tech country.”

The fifth Millennium Technology Prize to be awarded in 2012

In June 2012, the Technology Academy Finland (TAF) will award the fifth international Millennium Technology Prize for a technological innovation that improves the quality of life of people. In less than ten years the prize has achieved significant visibility and respect in both Finnish and international science communities as well as in the business sector.  Past winners include Sir Tim Berners-Lee for the world wide web, Professor Shuji Nakamura for the development of white and blue LED lights, Professor Robert Langer for advanced drug delivery systems and Professor Michael Grätzel for dye-sensitised solar cells.

Forty extremely qualified candidates have been nominated for the 2012 award. The finalists will be announced in April 2012 and the winner of the main prize will be announced on 13 June 2012.

Two other events form an essential part of the Millennium brand. The Millennium Distinction Awards is a distinction prize for Finnish growth companies and researchers with outstanding achievements in the field of the most-recent Millennium Technology Prize winner. The Millennium Youth Camp is an international science camp for talented students aged 16–19. The camp is free of charge for the participants and it is arranged by the Technology Academy Finland in co-operation with the Finnish Science Education Centre LUMA. The application period for the next summer’s camp ends on 18 December 2011 and the camp will be held on 9–16 June 2012.

Further information:

Technology Academy Finland

Stig Gustavson

Chairman of the Board

Tel. +358 400 411 119

Niina Suhonen

Communications & Marketing Manager

Tel. +358 40 8439 438