Meet the winners

Join us to meet the winners of the Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research 2024 and learn more about their projects and motivation.

Together with the BIH QUEST Center for Responsible Research at Charité, the Einstein Foundation is honored to present:

The 2024 Awardees

  • Elisabeth Bik, Bik Science Integrity Consultants I Individual Award
  • PubPeer, Brandon Stell, Founder of PubPeer I Institutional Award
  • PixelQuality, Christopher Schmied, FMP Berlin & Helena Jambor, Chur University of Applied Sciences I Early Career Award

The awardees will be joined by Csaba Szabo, University of Fribourg, nominator of Elisabeth Bik, and Dorothy Bishop, University of Oxford, nominator of PubPeer.

All panelists will share insights into their impactful work with our host, Jess Rohmann, BIH QUEST Center for Responsible Research at Charité, Berlin, Germany.

More information on the awardees

Elisabeth Bik I €200,000 Individual Award

Elisabeth Bik’s work as a data sleuth is vital to science’s self-correcting nature. She has identified over 7,600 potential cases of research misconduct and, despite facing harassment and accusations, remains a strong advocate for research integrity. Through her blogs, Microbiome Digest and Science Integrity Digest, she champions rigorous standards and shares her love for microbiology, science communication, and research integrity. She sets a powerful example for aspiring scientists and the entire community, encouraging a commitment to transparency and integrity. 

PubPeer I €200,000 Institutional Award 

PubPeer occupies a unique niche in science communication, enabling rapid, public post-publication peer review. Its impact has grown exponentially: it has helped identify flaws in the work of eminent scientists, combatted the scourge of fraudulent "paper mills", and fostered the emergence of an international, multidisciplinary community of research integrity experts.

PixelQuality I €100,000 Early Career Award 

PixelQuality confronts a pressing issue: the need for reliable image data in research. This initiative, uniting nearly 150 researchers, has established guidelines for clarity and reproducibility in research images. The project now seeks to implement and educate the adoption of these guidelines as well as adapt these resources to the new challenges of AI-assisted image processing.