European Information Society Technologies Prize
The 2001 European IST Prize has a fund of 700,000 euros to reward groundbreaking products that represent the best of European innovation in information technology. Twenty winners' prizes of 5,000 euros will be awarded, from which three grand prize winners will be selected, receiving 200,000 euros each and the European IST Prize trophy. In addition, winners an expect to receive extensive media coverage. One of last year's winners Jakob Ehrensvard of Cypak, whose company produced an interactive packaging system which monitors and evaluates the way patients take their prescriptions, said: 'We are a very new company and this is a dream start for us. Now instead of saying what can we do for you, we can say what can you do for us.' The awards will be presented during the Information Society Technologies Conference, IST 2000. Event organisers have not forgotten about the 2000 awards ceremony, but have named this year's the 2001 European IST prize to allow the winners to be 'the current year's winners' during the year that follows the awards ceremony in November. Applications should present novel products with a high information technology content and evident market potential. The product should be at least a demonstrable prototype and, if already marketed, should have been introduced into the market after 1 June 1998. The closing date for entries is 16 May 2000 at 1700 hours CET.