Winners of 1999 European IST prize announced
Twenty five winners have been selected from among 261 entries for the 1999 European Information Society Technologies Prize. They will receive their prizes at a special award ceremony to be held in Helsinki on 23 November 1999 during the IST 99 conference. Each winning entry will receive 5,000 euro, but three grand prize winners who will be announced at the award ceremony, will each receive 200,000 euro. The award scheme was designed to encourage IST innovation across Europe. It is run by Euro-CASE, the European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering, and is sponsored by the European Commission. Now in its fifth year, the European IST prize is increasingly a recognition of ground-breaking innovation in IST. Past grand prize winners have achieved remarkable success in marketing their product, something the award organisers want to encourage. Euro-CASE administrator Helle Bonnet said: 'The evaluation group had a hard time because the standard has improved significantly this year, both the technology and, to our great satisfaction, also the business side as well.' Companies with novel products possessing a high IT content and evident market potential were invited to enter the competition. This year's winning products range from network and data security solutions to hand-held devices, telecom switching systems, and interactive 3D animation engines. All the winning products will be on show at the 'EISTP Village' exhibition at the European IST Conference in Helsinki from 22 to 24 November 1999.