A system to track digital rights management, computer memory that can survive high temperatures and a 3D facial recognition technology have won the three grand prizes at the 2006 European IST Prize Awards. 

Each nominee won €5,000, and the three grand prize winners each took home an additional €200,000.

A jury of 18 judges chosen by non-profit organisation Euro-CASE recommended the winners to the European Commission, which awarded the prize money. 

Given the recent copyright ruling in France affecting Apple's iPod, and Steve Jobs's belligerent response, the timeliest winner was French firm Advestigo.

The company's AdvestiSEARCH digital rights management software tracks copyrighted material that is posted online.

"We have been in business with the music industry in France for the past 12 months and, with the political debate, things have been a little on hold," Michel Roux, president and chief executive at Advestigo, told vnunet.com. 

"Things will now start up again based on the legal foundation that has been defined in France.

"The go-to-market is key. We have the technology, we have the service in place and now it's a question of talking to people. Hopefully we will provide other applications for the European and US markets."

With nominees 3DSolar, Creist and ZOOtech missing out on a grand prize, the only British link to the winners was Dutch company Cavendish Kinetics. 

The firm's Nanomech memory system is designed to withstand radiation and temperatures up to 200°C, and was developed at Cambridge University. The company was spun-off from the university in 1994.

The third grand prize winner was Danish company Guardia for its Guardia Control System which uses 3D models to improve facial recognition for security products.

The European IST Prize Awards is open to entrants from 33 European countries and there is a business focus to the winning entries.

"The difference between this prize and many prizes given by academies is that this is really for the future," said George Grunberg of Euro-CASE's French Academy.

"That's why innovation is important, but the credibility of succeeding in the market is also a key issue. That's why we have three coherent criteria: the technological innovation, the market potential and the social impact."