The Tech Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.

The Tech Awards program inspires global engagement in applying technology to humanity's most pressing problems by recognizing the best of those who are utilizing innovative technology solutions to address the most urgent critical issues facing our planet. People all over the world are profoundly improving the human condition in the areas of education, equality, environment, health, and economic development through the use of technology. It is the goal of The Tech Awards to showcase their compelling stories and reward their brilliant accomplishments.

Each year, candidates are nominated and then invited to submit applications. Individuals, for-profit companies, and not-for-profit organizations are eligible. International panels of judges review the applications and annually select 15 Laureates. Awards are presented in five categories: Health, Education, Environment, Economic Development, and Equality. Three Laureates in each category are honored and one Laureate per category receives $50,000. Laureates are honored at an annual Gala event and inducted into The Tech Awards Network (TAN). The TAN extends the award program from an annual event to a year round program. The goal of the TAN is to create opportunities for learning, networking, and exposure to assist the Laureates in furthering their work.

The Tech Awards program was launched in November 2000, and The Tech Awards Gala was held in 2001 for the first time. The concept for the awards and the five universal categories were inspired in part by the State of the Future report, published by the Millennium Project of the American Council of the United Nations University. The report recommends that award recognition is an effective way to accelerate scientific breakthrough and technological applications to improve the human condition. The Tech Awards categories were inspired by the 15 Global Challenges identified in the report.

Submit a Nomination
To be considered as a Laureate in The Tech Awards program requires participation in a two-step process:

Step 1: Nomination (we accept nominations year-round)
Once you submit a nomination, The Tech Awards team will review it to ensure you meet the program's requirements for eligibility (see our Criteria). Self-nominations are accepted. Be prepared to answer these three key questions on the nomination form (note character count on form):

• Identify the technology application
• Explain how the technology application benefits humanity
• State why you think the nominee deserves recognition

The submission link is: http://nominations.techawards.org

Step 2: Application and References
If your nomination is accepted, you will be invited to submit a more detailed application, and required to provide two references (e.g., business colleagues, professors, mentors, or members of the group applying). You can access the application system as many times as you need to in order to understand and answer the questions on the form.

Nominations for The Tech Awards are accepted year-round and we are currently accepting nominations for 2010. The 2010 deadline for nominations is March 31, 2010. See our Calendar page for other dates and deadlines.

Read our Criteria page to understand how we select applicants and prospective Laureates, and learn more about each of the awards Categories. To get a feel for who selects The Tech Awards Laureates, read the profiles of some of the Judges.