Up to EUR700.000 Prize Money from European Commission for innovative companies. Among the 20 winners of the ICT Prize 2006 was also Romanian National Institute for Earth Physics (NIEP).
ICT Prize (information and communication technology), established for innovative products and services based on 'digital technologies' and supported by the European Commission, went recently in the thirteenth round by opening the application for ICT Prize 2008, according to a press release sent on 26th of June 2007 by EAST SIDE Consulting GmbH.
This commercial incentive for innovation with an annual budget of 700.000€ prize money, shared among 20 winners, helps dozens of companies to bridge the gap between the technology development and the market realization.
Over 500 companies have been nominated for the award since 1995. Companies with innovations in the area of information and communication technology can apply for ICT Prize 2008 under:
http://www.ict-prize.org/contact/index.html
until December, 4 2007.
Evaluation criteria for this European prize are not only innovation and technical excellence, business potential, but also generation of employment and new business ventures, contribution towards increasing the acceptance and understanding of IT by Society at large, and societal benefits.
German companies lead the list of finalists every year, however the number of Eastern European entrepreneurs coming out of hiding is increasing from year to year.
Among the 20 winners of the ICT Prize 2006 was also Romanian National Institute for Earth Physics (NIEP), which has a long experience in regional and global seismic studies and insures Romania'™s technical contribution to global seismological monitoring in support of the Comprehensive Nuclear '“ Test '“ Ban Treaty '“ Vienna.
'Winning the ICT Prize has not only helped us to finance the early stages and rise awareness of the Institute, it also encouraged staff and made an essential impact on the commercial success of the Prize winning product. ICT Prize also gave a boost to our commercial success abroad, including also USA', said Prof. Gheorghe Marmureanu, General Director of NIEP.
National Institute for Earth Physics was founded after a catastrophic earthquake in Bucharest with 1500 causalities in 1977 with the objective to develop an advanced seismic data collection and management system, including robust real-time data acquisition techniques, reliable communication links, rapid processing and exchange of earth-quake information, creating and handling of large data sets, compilation of bulletins and earthquakes catalogues.
Early Warning System for strong earthquakes, the ICT Prize winning product was developed by NIEP as the first European system for real-time early detection and warning of the seismic waves in case of strong earthquakes. The system has thousands of sensors which deliver timely integrated information in order to enable actions to be taken in the time interval between the moment when the earthquake was detected and the time of the wave arrival.
