The "Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research" is presented in three categories to individual researchers, institutions, and early career researchers. Awardees are selected by a prestigious international jury of researchers from various disciplines.
The recipient of this year’s Individual Award, Elisabeth Bik, is a microbiologist, science whistleblower, and independent consultant for scientific integrity. Bik has uncovered the use of fraudulent or erroneous data for more than 7,600 scientific papers and has shed light on the practice of selling authorship for fabricated studies. This year’s Institutional Award recognizes the relevance of PubPeer, a platform for rapid post-publication review and discussion of published scientific data. PubPeer’s impact on the scientific community has been significant: it has helped identify flaws in the work of eminent scientists, combatted fraud, and fostered the emergence of an international, multidisciplinary community of research integrity experts. The 2024 Early Career Award goes to the project PixelQuality by Christopher Schmied and Helena Jambor, which aims to improve reproducibility in life sciences by establishing rigorous guidelines for research image publication and preparing for AI‘s role in their generation and analysis.
The Einstein Foundation Berlin is an independent, not-for-profit, science-led organization established as a foundation under civil law in 2009. It promotes international cutting-edge science and research across disciplines and institutions in and for Berlin. To date, it has funded more than 240 researchers, including three Nobel laureates, over 70 projects, and eight Einstein Centers.
Further Reading
- Einstein Foundation Berlin (18.11.2024): The Einstein Foundation Berlin awards €500,000 prize to advance research quality
