Four young people represented Finland in the European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS). Zofia Järvinen's entry was in the field of physics, Hermanni Sallinen’s and Niilo Sipilä's entry was in the engineering category of the contest, and Sofia Koivumäki's entry was in biology.
Zofia Järvinen says that the best thing about the contest was the people and the community.
"It was great to make new friends from an international group who all share a passion for science and research. The spirit of togetherness left me with both unforgettable experiences and fresh perspectives on my own future field of research!"
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Järvinen is studying physics at the University of Helsinki, but while making the contest entry, Järvinen was still a high school student at Tampere Classical High School, specialising in natural sciences.
The contest entry dealt with determining the life cycle stage of stars. The entry can be viewed on the EUCYS contest website:
Determining Stellar Evolutionary phases: Constructing an H-R-diagram from observational data
Finland’s EUCYS representatives are selected from TEK's national Kipinä contest. Järvinen encourages those entering the contest to seize every opportunity.
"Be open to new experiences, because I can promise you that the EUCYS trip will be full of all kinds of amazing things that you might not even have expected!"
Opportunity to network
Hermanni Sallinen and Niilo Sipilä considered the discussions with other contestants to be the best part of the contest.
"It's worth taking advantage of the situation for networking," they advise.
Sallinen and Sipilä liked that, in addition to the contest, there was an opportunity to get to know the culture of the host country, Latvia. They also thought the food during the contest trip was good.
In their contest entry, they had studied killing bacteria with an electric fly swatter. They had done the work as part of their studies at Valkeakoski Tietotie High School in the Päivölä Mathematics Department. Check out the entry on the EUCYS contest website:
Killing bacteria with an electric fly swatter
Hermanni Sallinen encourages future Finnish representatives in the contest to familiarise themselves with all the works sufficiently to know which ones they want to explore in more depth.
"I neglected to familiarise myself with work which in retrospect seemed interesting to me."
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The fourth representative from Finland, Sofia Koivumäki, studied the effect of hormone pollution on plants. Koivumäki's entry can be viewed on the EUCYS contest website:
An Investigation on the Effect of Hormone Pollution on Surrounding Plant Life
The European Union Contest for Young Scientists EUCYS brought together 133 young people from 37 different countries. There were 90 contest entries, as the entry could have been made alone or in a group. The contest took place in Riga, Latvia, from 15th to 20th of September. The participants were between 14 and 20 years old.
The aim of the EUCYS contest is to encourage young people to pursue careers in science and technology. The international jury selected Anna Černá from the Czech Republic, Evan Budz from Canada, Dani Zuhair from Sweden, and Antoni Łuczak from Poland as the winners of the grand prize of 7,000 euros.
Kipinä 2026 – Apply!
Kipinä, organized by Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland TEK, is a science contest for 14–20-year-olds from all over Finland. The contest selects Finland's representatives for the EU Young Scientists contest.
Would you like to participate or do you know someone who could?
Registration for the Kipinä contest must be completed by 31 January 2026. Your work must be submitted by 1 February 2026. Registration for the contest workspace is now open! The workspace contains more detailed instructions and tips for completing the contest work and writing the required report. The final event of the contest will be in April 2026.