The partnership will improve dialogue and cooperation between industry, the academic world and different governmental agencies. The partnership is founded on innovation and sustainable development.

'Through urbanisation, more and more people in the world spend most of their time indoors. In terms of people's immediate life quality and the future of the planet, it is crucial that these environments are built with high quality and in line with the principles of sustainable development. This increasingly means innovative cooperation across boundaries, and smart solutions,' says Halton Group's chief executive, Kai Konola.

Family company Halton shares the leading ideas of the Millennium Prize in that throughout its 50-year history, Halton has valued persistence, courage and expertise – and research-based technology that improves people's well-being.

“We at Halton want to enable people's well-being in demanding indoor environments. To succeed in this, we must be able to productise our innovations and to help build a more comprehensively responsible and sustainable world. Technological innovations are crucial in the creation of well-being for the current and future generations.

Through the Millennium partnership, we have the pleasure to support TAF's important work in boosting these innovations and speeding up practical solutions based on them,” Mr Konola says.

“Halton Group is a family-owned Finnish company which operates globally and represents the very forefront of technological development in its field. Halton's persistent work and strong investments in technology and service innovations have created world-class know-how in Finland. We are very pleased to have this globally growing and knowledge-intensive company as our new partner,” says Eeva Sievi, chief operating officer of TAF.

The Millennium Technology Prize Partner organisations is a forerunner in its field and is strongly committed to innovation, research and product and service development.