The UEF Library awarded the contributor for open science and open access for the eleventh time.
The University of Eastern Finland Library’s Contributor for Open Science Award 2026 was given to Professor Matti Tedre from the School of Computing and Associate Professor Henriikka Vartiainen from the School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education.
Matti Tedre leads the Generation AI project, a Finnish multidisciplinary research project involving several universities and funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC). Henriikka Vartiainen leads one of the project’s work packages.
The project develops research-based educational technologies, learning materials and learning modules to strengthen AI literacy among children and young people, and produces free applications, learning materials and new research-based knowledge. Generation AI teaches people to understand AI – its opportunities, risks and societal significance.
The project brings together technology developers, schools, authorities, companies and non-governmental organisations. It strengthens children’s and young people’s ability to face the global societal impacts of technology and provides teachers with pedagogical tools to support learning.
The project has developed six applications open to everyone, allowing pupils and teachers to explore how AI works in practice, without programming skills. All the applications have been released under the MIT licence: anyone can check how they work and what data they process. The open and free tools have already been used more than 200,000 times in over 50 countries.
The tools and learning materials that develop AI literacy skills are openly available.
