€700k European ICT prize finalists get the nod

The finalists for the European ICT prize have been announced, with each hoping to grab a stake of €700,000 in prize money.

Only one UK company has been nominated for its innovative approach to IT, out of a shortlist of 20 finalists up for the award.

Flying the flag for Blighty is Transitive Corporation which provides solutions to allow software applications to be moved across hardware platforms.

Germany spawned the greatest number of finalists with seven companies up for the prize, followed by France with four finalists, Austria (three), Sweden (two) and Finland, Israel, Norway and the UK with one finalist each.

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UK companies ScanSafe and the Royal National Institute for Deaf people both missed out on getting a finalist spot - after appearing on a preliminary shortlist of 45 companies up for the award back in January.

Every finalist will walk away with a cheque for €5,000 and the top three technical companies will win an additional €200,000 each.

The prize is awarded to companies for new and imaginative products and services and is supported by the European Commission.

The prizes will be presented by European Commissioner Viviane Reding in Hanover, Germany on 16 March 2007.

The 2007 European ICT finalists - and their countries of origin - are:

• A3M (Germany)

• Byometric Systems (Germany)

• Digimund (France)

• g.tec Guger technologies (Austria)

• Intrasense (France)

• Kineo CAM (France)

• Leiki (Finland)

• Netviewer (Germany)

• Operax (Sweden)

• Sail Labs Technology (Austria)

• SanDisk (Israel)

• Telepo (Sweden)

• Temis (France)

• Transitive Corporation (UK)

• Treventus Mechatronics (Austria)

• T-VIPS (Norway)

• Ubitexx (Germany)

• Vmscope (Germany)

• Vrmagic (Germany)

• X-aitment (Germany)