Celebrating 5 Years of Advancing Rigor, Openness, and Transparency in Research

With a €350,000 annual prize, the Einstein Foundation Award empowers and incentivizes researchers, organizations, and early-career initiatives to reshape how science is conducted, shared, and evaluated globally.

Reproduced from Ulrich Dirnagl & Ulrike Pannasch. Celebrating 5 Years of Advancing Rigor, Openness, and Transparency in Research. REACH; January-March 2026: 6-12 [Available at https://www.sci-integrity.com/reach-january-march-2026].

Since 2021, the Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research has recognized individuals, teams, and organizations whose work strengthens transparency, reproducibility, and integrity across disciplines. Over the past 5 years, the Berlin-based Award has highlighted pioneering initiatives and enabled tangible improvements in research practices worldwide.

Promoting Open and Transparent Science

Open access and transparency are transforming how science is shared and used. The inaugural Award in 2021 honored Prof. Paul Ginsparg, highlighting the transformative power of open infrastructure. Through arXiv, the world’s first global preprint server, scientific knowledge became openly and immediately accessible. The Award’s support facilitated strengthening of arXiv’s quality-control mechanisms—now more important than ever in the era of AI—to protect the scientific record against fabricated content and preserve integrity.

The Award has also spotlighted trailblazers such as the Center for Open Science (2021) and the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (2023). By providing global visibility and credibility to these initiatives, the Award helped push for the standardization of data and methods sharing practices, advancing openness and reproducibility across disciplines.

Porträt Elisabeth Bik — Elisabeth Bik, photo by Michael & Co

Safeguarding Scientific Integrity

Trust in research relies on mechanisms that detect, correct and prevent factual errors and scientific misconduct. In 2024, Dr. Elisabeth Bik and PubPeer were recognized for their work to improve such mechanisms and raise awareness of questionable research practices. By supporting the Bik Science Integrity Fund, the Award has empowered data sleuths working hard to advance transparency and accountability.

For PubPeer, the Award has provided a mark of distinction for the platform’s usefulness, encouraging broader adoption and supporting the further growth of engaged user communities.

In 2024, the Award also supported PixelQuality, an early-career initiative that established rigorous image-reporting standards that have been adopted by leading journals, including Nature, and targeted, practical tools to help researchers across the globe meet these standards, contributing to higher research quality on a large scale.

Advancing Collaborative, Global Research

Reliable solutions to today’s complex scientific challenges require large, diverse teams working across labs, countries, and continents. By recognizing initiatives like the Psychological Science Accelerator (PSA, 2022) and the early-career project ManyBabies5 (2021), the Award has allowed large-scale collaborative teams to realize their ambitious goals. Upon receipt of the award, PSA Director Dr. Nicholas Coles noted: “The world’s biggest challenges demand the power of many minds — yet funders often struggle with the global scope of international collaboration. The Einstein Foundation Award, however, does exactly that, supporting science without borders.”

The world’s biggest challenges demand the power of many minds — yet funders often struggle with the global scope of international collaboration. The Einstein Foundation Award, however, does exactly that, supporting science without borders

Dr. Nicholas Coles, Director Psychological Science Accelerator

Robust and reliable research starts with sound methods and ethical responsibility

Prof. Gordon Guyatt pioneered evidence-based medicine by shifting medical decision-making from tradition to evidence. The Award supported his team’s work to simplify the tools and guidelines underpinning evidence-based medicine, enabling their widespread adoption as rigorous and transparent research standards.

In psychological science, Prof. Simine Vazire has championed reforms focused on methodological rigor, transparency, and constructive collaboration. Through her leadership as founder of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) and in shaping the journal Collabra to prioritize rigor over novelty, she has helped redefine research quality in the field. By putting her work in the spotlight in 2025, the Award helps promote reforms that influence research cultures across multiple disciplines, not just psychology.

Portrait of Simine Vazire — Simine Vazire, photo by Yoel Inbar

Reducing bias and error is central to research reliability

Through its Early Career Award, the Einstein Foundation has supported projects that make hidden biases measurable—and therefore correctable. The Ape Research Index (2022) exposed systematic bias in comparative cognitive research, while in 2025 the Award recognized the project Erring Rigorously, whichhas begun to explore how errors in high-throughput sequencing analyses may affect research outcomes. Scientific progress must benefit society without compromising ethical responsibility.

Transforming Research Systems and Incentives

Research is not self-correcting by default; rigor and reliability require systems that monitor, measure, and incentivize quality. The Brazilian Reproducibility Initiative (2025) created a national-scale feedback loop, replicating experiments in 56 labs and providing actionable insights to improve research practices. Complementary work by the early-career project Responsible Research Assessment (2023) developed incentives for hiring and promotion within the RESQUE project that prioritize research quality over quantity. Together, these initiatives demonstrate how the Award promotes systemic reforms that make research more transparent, robust, and accountable.

Porträt Yves Moreau — Yves Moreau, photo by Lies Willaert

Scientific progress must benefit society without compromising ethical responsibility

The 2023 award spotlighted Yves Moreau for advancing ethical standards in the use of human genetic data, including privacy-preserving analyses in the era of AI and big data. By drawing attention to unethical practices—such as unethical genetic data collection— he has influenced the field internationally, leading to retractions of problematic articles and the discontinuation of DNA kit use for mass surveillance, featured in the BBC and the Guardian (BBC; Guardian), while encouraging researchers to reflect on the societal consequences of their work.

From Recognition to Lasting Change

Beyond recognition, the Einstein Foundation Award has catalyzed real-world impact. By combining substantial funding, visibility, and endorsement, the Award has enabled awardees to scale initiatives, influence journal policies, develop new tools, and build lasting communities of practice. Together, these effects demonstrate how targeted recognition can shift research culture—embedding rigor, transparency, collaboration, and ethical responsibility as enduring standards.

Kreidetrophäen Einstein Foundation Award

The Award is made possible by the generous donation of Walter Wübben, Founder of the Wübben Stiftung Wissenschaft, complemented by the support from the State of Berlin, and the decisive engagement of Jürgen Zöllner, former Senator for Science and Education of the State of Berlin, whose leadership was instrumental in establishing the prize and ensuring its long-term success.

The Award’s success rests in large part on an international, interdisciplinary, and diverse jury of globally recognized individuals who champion a worldwide agenda to improve research quality. Together, they evaluate submissions, select the awardees, and help define the Award’s strategic direction.

The Einstein Foundation Award is bestowed jointly with the QUEST Center for Responsible Research at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The individual and institutional awards are funded by the Wübben Stiftung Wissenschaft, while the Early Career Award is supported by the BIH QUEST Center for Responsible Research. The award is further supported by partners including Nature Portfolio, PLOS, the National Academy of Sciences, the Berlin University Alliance, the Max Planck Society, and the Max Planck Foundation.