Nokia Foundation supports scientific development in telecommunications. With this years nokia contests theme “Open Innovation” they have awarded Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales as the 2009 winner as the recipient of the Nokia Foundation award. With the Award Jimmy Wales also received a prize of 75,000 dollars. In addition to honoring Wales and Wikipedia, the Nokia Foundation also awarded Nokia doctorate scholarships worth €385,000 to 77 post-graduate students in the field of information and data communications technology.

Wikipedia pages has more than 14.000.000 million articles in over 260 languages and has more than 330 million visitors each month.
The nokia contest board consists of Foundation Board consists of four members from the Finnish universities and three members from Nokia. The board holds this contest every year to choose the winner of Nokia Foundation Award.
Henry Tirri, head of Nokia Research Centre and Nokia Foundation chairman, said the award was both deserved and timely.

