Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas

NEW YORK, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The final contenders to win the fourth Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas were announced today http://www.saatchi.com/innovation. The global award, formerly known as the Saatchi & Saatchi Award for Innovation in Communication, is made biennially by the Ideas Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. The Award attracts an incredibly broad range of entries, as reflected in the line up of finalists for this year's prize.

  The eleven finalists are:

  BIO-SOLAR ENERGY NANODEVICES (MIT, Cambridge, USA) -- Minute solar cells
  that use spinach to convert sunlight into electrical energy.

  CONCRETE CANVAS (Royal College of Art, London, UK) -- Rapidly deployable
  hardened shelters for victims of natural or man-made disasters.

  FROZEN ARK PROJECT (Nottingham University, UK) -- Plan to save the DNA of
  all Earth's endangered species.

  JOT-A-DOT (Rydalmere, New South Wales, Australia) -- The first real
  innovation in Braille writing in 50 years.

  LENS-FREE OPHTHALMOSCOPE (Cambridge, UK) -- Simpler, much less expensive
  than traditional models, for carrying out accurate, highly revealing
  retinal examinations.

  OPTICAL STRETCHER (Leipzig University, Germany) -- Uses laser beams to
  detect cancer cells, and can also isolate adult stem cells for medical
  research.

  PHOTO-FORM TACTILE GRAPHICS (Scottsdale, Arizona, USA) -- Creates bas
  relief tiles of 2 dimensional images, so 'pictures' can be 'seen' by a
  blind person's touch.

  PLANTIC (Laverton North, Victoria, Australia) -- Substitute plastic
  packaging, 90% made from renewable cornstarch. Dissolves in water.

  SPLASHPOWER (Cambridge, UK) -- Recharges cell phones etc wirelessly when
  placed on mouse mat-sized pad.

  SUBVOCAL SPEECH RECOGNITION (NASA, California, USA) -- Interprets tiny
  neural impulses sent from brain to vocal tract to communicate, rather than
  sounds.

  WIKIPEDIA (Florida, USA) -- Free-content, on-line encyclopedia, written
  collaboratively by volunteers worldwide.

The judging panel for the 2005 Award includes TED Conference's Chris Anderson, pioneer of lateral thinking, Edward de Bono, composer Philip Glass, film director Baz Luhrmann, musician, Lou Reed, primate communications expert, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and photographer, Oliviero Toscani.

Bob Isherwood, Saatchi & Saatchi's Worldwide Creative Director and creator of the Award said, "The diversity of the finalists indicates how wide ranging the issues are that need to be addressed -- and their ingenuity demonstrates the focus of innovators to try and effect the necessary changes."

The winner will be announced at a high profile ceremony in New York on Thursday 26th January 2006, where work and prototypes by the eleven finalists will be exhibited.

At the same ceremony, Edward de Bono will present his Medal For Thinking to a finalist he considers "simple, practical, effective and in use."

Saatchi & Saatchi established The Award to recognize, celebrate and promote ideas that have the potential to change the world by making possible, improving or revolutionizing communication. The US $100,000 prize is made up of US$50,000 cash and the equivalent of US$50,000 in Saatchi & Saatchi marketing consultancy.

For more information visit http://www.saatchi.com/innovation or contact Samantha DiGennaro.