OREANDA-NEWS. The Expert Group of the RUSNANOPRIZE International Nanotechnology Prize has started evaluating 2014 applications. Winners of the Prize will be announced on October 15, 2014 at the III Moscow International Forum for Innovative Development “Open Innovations”. This year RUSNANOPRIZE is awarded in the field of optics and nanoelectronics.

In 2014, the RUSNANOPRIZE Directorate has received 23 applications from researchers in 10 countries including UK, Germany, Iran, China, Korea, Russia, USA, Finland, France and Japan. Several applications have been submitted by international research groups, such as a joint American-Japanese group and USA-UK-Russia group. Prize Directorate has registered 20 applications that met formal requirements of the competition and passed them to the Prize Expert Group which will work out a shortlist that includes not less than 3 nominees. In the concluding stage, the RUSNANOPRIZE International Committee will choose the 2014 prize winner from among the finalists.

This year's topic for nominations is Optics and Nanoelectronics. These areas are known to have a strong demand for new nanotechnology discoveries and are strategically important for the innovative development of numerous sectors of the global industry.

“The odds are that in the nearest future the next step in the scientific and technological revolution will happen in one of the fields that the RUSNANOPRIZE competition is focusing on this year. This year the Prize Directorate received at least three applications related to such highly promising areas: metamaterials, memristor elements for computing and data storage, and optical spectroscopy techniques beyond the diffraction limit, with each of these applications including a proven history of commercial success,” says Executive Vice President of the Nanotechnological Society of Russia Denis Andreyuk.

The RUSNANOPRIZE aims to recognize inventors and scientists whose work has scientific merit and has been successfully commercialised. The Prize is given for developments that have been massively produced with an annual output of no less than USD 10 million. Awardees are bestowed with the award symbol of the Prize, as well as 3 million roubles of prize money. The company being first to introduce the winning development into mass production with a significant commercial success is also awarded with the Prize and receives the award symbol.

The prize is awarded annually in one of the following areas: optics and nanoelectronics; nanomaterials and surface modification; medicine, pharmacology and biotechnology; energy efficiency and green technologies. In 2014 the Prize is awarded for the sixth time. Prize laureates will be awarded at a solemn award ceremony held on October 15 in the Moscow Technopolis during the Open Innovations Forum and Exhibition.