Focus Digital Star Award: Prized Innovations MUNICH, January 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Focus and DLD honor ResearchGate, YouPickIt and SAP Digital innovations are crucial to maintaining a country's future viability. On Monday, 20 January 2014, FOCUS presented for the second time its award for technologies that could prove formative for future markets; the awards ceremony took place as part of the DLD (Digital, Life, Design) innovation conference. Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140122/666376-a Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140122/666376-b Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140122/666376-c Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140122/666376-d In keeping with the motto of 'Digital Innovation Leaders 2014', a high-profile expert jury assessed innovations by German companies, research institutions, and start-ups. Focus editor-in-chief Jörg Quoos and Focus editor Britta Weddeling presented the awards, which came with media volume worth 50,000 euros, to three German companies. Germany needs pioneers whose visions let the German digital economy grow. With the Digital Star Award, Focus honors technologies that deserve to be presented to a wide national and international audience," explained Focus editor-in-chief Jörg Quoos. The main award, 'Digital Innovation of the Year', went to ReasearchGate, the social network for scientists, to honor their accomplishment in making research more efficient. The award was presented by Claudia Nemat, Board Member of Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe and Technology, to the network's founder Ijad Madisch. We are delighted about receiving the Focus Digital Star Award, most of all because we have been honored for an idea that is geared toward researchers and might not be understood by everybody right away. The Focus Digital Star Award will give even more people a better understanding of ResearchGate; and this is important because research concerns us all," commented Ijad Madisch. The young talent award, 'Digital Perspective', was bestowed upon YouPickIt. This website browses the sites of supermarkets, drugstores, DIY superstores, electronics specialists, discounters and soon also gas stations to determine the most reasonable service provider in the proximity by comparing a total of 60 million prices. In doing so, YouPickIt creates full price transparency. The jury assigned the special 'B2B Award' to SAP. The company's in-memory platform SAP HANA allows for data evaluation in real-time and facilitates new business processes. The jury members of the Focus Digital Star Award include renowned experts such as DLD founder Steffi Czerny; Stefan Winners, Board Member Digital at Hubert Burda Media; Markan Karajica, Chairman of the Board of ProSiebenSat 1 Digital; investor Lars Hinrichs; and Claudia Nemat, Board Member of Deutschen Telekom AG. In 2013, the Focus Digital Star Award went to the app provider myTaxi (Hamburg), the auction platform Auctionata (Berlin), and the data analysis software provider Blue Yonder (Karlsruhe). Fur further information please see http://www.focus.de/digital-star or http://www.dld.co. Additional images on request. About Focus: Each week, the news magazine Focus informs decision-makers on the most important topics from politics, economics, technology, research and society. Featuring accurate analyses, transparent background reports and deep investigations, Focus gets to the point and looks courageously to the future. http://www.focus.de/magazin/ About DLD Media: DLD is Hubert Burda Media's international conference and innovation platform. DLD Media organizes Europe's leading digital conference DLD, the women's conference DLDwomen, and international networking events in locations such as Palo Alto, New York, London, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing. DLD Media releases publications, online and video formats and studies on conference content and advises DLD partners, start-ups, investors, and institutions. Stephanie Czerny is the DLD's Managing Director and co-founded the DLD Conference in 2005. Press contact: Alice Schwetz Hubert Burda Media Corporate Communications Arabellastraße 23 81925 Munich, Germany Phone: +49-89-9250-3067 Email: alice.schwetz@burda.com