Press release

Scientists, early career researchers, and organizations in all fields are invited to apply for the international Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research, or to nominate colleagues and institutions that have rendered outstanding services in this area. The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2024 and the winners will be announced at the end of the year.

The Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research recognizes contributions that improve the validity of science and research in fundamental ways, thereby significantly boosting the benefits to society. Enabling free worldwide access to research (open science), establishing equitable international partnerships (big team science), and advocating for high ethical standards in research are just some of the activities worthy of consideration for this award.

The prize with a total value of €500,000 is awarded by the Einstein Foundation Berlin and the QUEST Center for Responsible Research at Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) at Charité in three categories: The €200,000 Individual Award is presented to researchers or small groups of researchers, while the Institutional Award, also worth €200,000, is for organizations and research institutes. The €100,000 Early Career Award recognizes innovative ideas by researchers at the start of their career.

“In order to meet global challenges effectively, we need robust solutions and evidence-based scientific findings,” says Ulrich Dirnagl, Founding Director of the BIH QUEST Center at Charité, and Secretary of the Einstein Foundation Award. “We therefore invite applications from researchers all over the world who have innovative ideas and a groundbreaking commitment to research quality.”

Award winners 2023

Last year, Belgian bioinformatician Yves Moreau from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven won the Individual Award. Moreau is one of the most passionate champions of ethical standards for the use of human DNA data in the age of artificial intelligence and big data. He develops privacy-preserving algorithms to analyze genetic data. The Institutional Award went to the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS). The Early Career Award was won by the Responsible Research Assessment project, led by Anne Gärtner of TU Dresden.

Jury

This year’s entries will be judged by an international panel chaired by Marcia McNutt, President of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington. Other jury members include Vice President Suzy Styles (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), Mai Har Sham (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Erika Kraemer-Mbula (University of Johannesburg), and Yuval Shany (Hebrew University of Jerusalem).

Partners

The Einstein Foundation Award is funded by the Damp Stiftung for a period of ten years. Additional resources are made available by the State of Berlin. The Nature Portfolio publishing house, the Public Library of Science (PLOS), the Max Planck Foundation, and the Berlin University Alliance support the Einstein Foundation Berlin in promoting and implementing the award internationally.

All information about the call for submissions, the award categories, selection criteria, and the jury, along with portraits of previous years’ winners, and presentations by the finalists in the Early Career Award category can be found at award.einsteinfoundation.de.

The Einstein Foundation Berlin is an independent, not-for-profit, science-led organization established as a foundation under civil law. It promotes international cutting-edge science and research across disciplines and institutions in and for Berlin – and has been doing so for more than ten years. To date, it has funded around 200 researchers, including three Nobel laureates, over 70 projects, and eight Einstein Centers.

The BIH QUEST Center at Charité develops and implements new approaches to help ensure that biomedical research is conducted in a trustworthy manner, delivers useful results, and meets ethical standards.

The Damp Stiftung was established by Dr. Walter Wübben, the former majority owner of the Klinikgruppe Damp, to fund medical research and teaching as well as social projects.