The Einstein Foundation Berlin announces its winners for Promoting Quality in Research

Note: PLOS is delighted to contribute to the global awareness of the Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research. By establishing a global award to honor individual researchers, as well as collaborations, institutions, and organizations, Einstein Foundation Berlin is making an important statement to recognize and reward researchers who are directly influencing increased quality in research.

AS PLOS’ Chief Scientific Officer, Veronique Kiermer, noted at last year’s award ceremony, “Science does not have any inherent right to be trusted…We believe that for science to be trustworthy, it must be open and by open we mean: it must be rigorous, transparent and inclusive. Science has its share of prestigious awards and prizes, celebrating scientific discoveries and breakthroughs. But it was missing a celebration of these essential elements of science: rigor, transparency, inclusivity — it was missing a celebration of quality.”

See here for the entire announcement from the Einstein Award foundation and/or below for a summary.

Individual Award Winner

The recipient of the Individual Award is Yves Moreau from the University of Leuven. Moreau ranks among the most ardent advocates for ethical standards in the utilization of human DNA data in the age of artificial intelligence and big data. He designs algorithms that protect personal privacy during the analysis of genetic data.

Institutional Award Winner

This year’s Institutional Award recognizes the work of the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS), which advocates for rigor, transparency, and reproducibility in social scientific research. The Institute achieves this through establishing open science practices, developing appropriate infrastructure, and conducting meta-research.

The Early Career Award Winner

The Responsible Research Assessment Initiative headed by Anne Gärtner (Dresden University of Technology). The project aims to identify, test, and establish novel criteria for the assessment of researchers and their output. Moving away from quantity of output and other unsuitable metrics, it will foreground quality of research by taking into account factors such as transparency, robustness, innovation, and cooperation.

The €500,000 Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research honors researchers and institutions whose work helps to fundamentally advance the quality and robustness of research findings. The award is bestowed jointly with the QUEST Center for Responsible Research at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH). The winners will be honored on March 14, 2024.