Winners of the 1st EU Code Week Small Grants
Winners in the Nordics announced 
The European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT) in the capacity of Coordinator of the Nordic Regional Hub is pleased to announce the awardees of the first EU Code Week Small Grants for Grassroots in Coding in the Nordic Countries competition. The EU Code Week Grants for Grassroots programme is a new initiative designed to foster digital innovation and coding education and computational thinking throughout Europe and inspire and attract more young girls and boys to STEM (Science- Technology-Engineering-Art-Mathematics) subject and digital skills focused careers.
The call was open between the 7th November 2025 and the 12th of January 2026 and applicants from all five Nordic countries provided some highly competitive bids. On the 28th of January Eva Fabry, Director of ECWT informed the Nordic Regional Hub Community that the jury of the competition consisting of prominent representatives of the public and private sector, academia and NGOs had after rigorous quality checks focusing on previous experiences, project feasibility, transferability and impact a huge challenge to select the three winners.
The Jury
The winner of the 2025/2026 competition scored 154.50 points, with an eight-point margin
over the second and third-place competitors, who both scored 146.50 points.
No1. Niilo Napakettu (in English Nilo the Snowfox)
With Leading Teacher Jaana Hekkanen and the Napakettu Team from Hiukkavaara Comprehensive School in Oulu, Finland.
Through the award-winning project, pre-primary and primary school children across Europe have the chance to meet one of the absolute favourites of Finnish girls and boys: Nilo the Snowfox. By combining storytelling and coding in an innovative way, the project engages children in problem-solving, logical thinking, and creativity—making early coding education fun, meaningful, and inspirational. Niilo Napakettu is also adorable, which is why children quickly fall in love with the character.
In addition, story-based coding offers an exciting new way to introduce coding in kindergartens and schools.
No2. Mother & daughter evening about artificial intelligence
With High5girls led by Marianne Andersen, Frederiksberg / Copenhagen Denmark.
Figures show that in 75% of cases, mothers are the ones who talk about education with their daughters. They are therefore also the most important role models when it comes to guiding and supporting educational choices. We invite girls and their mums to a fun evening focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and meaningful conversations about education! Come and meet Oda and Helena, both AI engineers and High5Girls role models. Together with them, we will explore the secrets behind AI. We will learn how to create and train artificial intelligence to recognize you and your movements. It will be a mix of hands-on exercises and discussions about educational pathways and technology in our daily lives. We will also talk about job stereotypes, biases, and how our own behaviour influences others. An evening for girls and women, filled with Danish hygge and knowledge about what truly matters when seeking the best support for educational choices. High5Girls – Denmark is a strong global brand when it comes to role models!
No3. CodeClub Online,
Developed by Leading Teachers Anu Kahri & Hanne Ritala, Filand
The project will deliver remote coding lessons for pupils aged 6–13 and their teachers. It has been designed as a modular, scalable, and flexible programme, enabling easy replication across a wide variety of educational contexts within the EU Code Week community. The project encourages STEAM studies by combining coding with creativity, design, and storytelling, integrating cross-disciplinary skills across science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Pupils develop their own projects, applying coding to real-world or imaginative contexts. Teachers receive ready-to-use lesson plans to embed coding across different subjects, promoting long-term engagement in STEAM.