Presentation of the 2024 Early Career Award Finalists, 5 Nov 2024
Meet the Finalists
The Early Career Award highlights innovative project proposals by researchers at the beginning of their careers. To acknowledge the role they play in promoting research quality, they are invited to propose projects that foster research quality and value. The winning project is awarded €100,000. For the 2024 Award our jury selected five Early Career Award finalists from a pool of 100 applicants from around the globe. These finalists presented their projects live on 5 November before the final decision was made - and the international research community was invited to join.
The 2024 Early Career Award Finalists
IMPACT OF RESEARCH BIASES IN ECOLOGY – A novel, replication-based approach which aims to investigate the impact of research biases in ecology by Antica Culina (Ruder Boskovic Institute, Croatia)
“A radically different, direct approach to solving the problem of estimating the impact of research biases on ecological knowledge, by generating the access to all of the main components of the research life cycle: raw datasets, analytical codes, resulting findings, and the subset of these findings that would get published. If successful, it will serve as a strong justification for changing the ways in which research and publishing is done.”
→ Watch the project presentation here
THE IPD INTEGRITY TOOL – aims to develop an innovative tool for detecting untrustworthy medical research, by Kylie Hunter and Anna Lene Seidler (University of Sydney, Australia)
“There is an integrity crisis in medical research, which not only undermines trust and confidence in research findings, but also exposes patients to potential harm. Current methods are insufficient to protect against misconduct and fraud in research. We will address this gap by developing, testing and implementing an innovative tool for detection of untrustworthy studies, ensuring a reliable evidence base informs clinical guidelines and practice.”
→ Watch the project presentation here
VIRTUAL UNIVERSE(S) – An open unified research environment for astrophysics and beyond, by Dylan Nelson (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
“Virtual Universe(s) will enable a community-wide transformation of how researchers interact with computational models. A new data platform will combine, side-by-side, large simulation models, analysis tools, and reproducible analysis workflows. It will be a pathfinder, field-leading demonstration of open science in action.”
→ Watch the project presentation here
GLOBAL INFECTIOUS DISEASE DATA STANDARD (GIDS) FOR EPIDEMIC SETTINGS – to revolutionize outbreak response and improve global health outcomes, by Emily Ricotta (Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, USA)
“A four-step approach to create a unified infectious disease data standard: a scoping literature review, expert judgement engagement, standard development leveraging currently utilized frameworks, and stakeholder outreach for broad adoption. Creating a unified standard for data collection using observational studies will fill a critical gap in the epidemic research landscape.”
→ Watch the project presentation here
PIXELQUALITY – Best practices for publishing images by Christopher Schmied (Leibniz-Institute for Molecular Pharmacology, Berlin, Germany) and Helena Jambor (University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons, Chur, Switzerland)
“PixelQuality has established guidelines for publishing clear, understandable image data derived from microscopy experiments, with the goal of improving reproducibility in life science. Our next steps involve creating educational resources, implementing train the trainers programs, and forming strategic alliances with global training initiatives. Furthermore, we recognize the importance of adapting these guidelines to address emerging challenges such as analysis with AI and AI-generated scientific figures.”
→ Watch the project presentation here
The event was part of Berlin Science Week, an annual science festival held between November 1 and 10 that brings together thousands of people from the worlds of science, business, politics, the arts, and society.