Presentation of the 2025 Early Career Award Finalists, 10 Nov 2025
Meet the Finalists
The Early Career Award recognizes innovative project proposals by researchers at the beginning of their careers. As essential drivers of change in research culture, early career researchers are invited to submit ideas that promote transparency, inclusiveness, and integrity in science. With the generous support of the BIH QUEST Center for Responsible Research, the award provides €100,000 to enable the winner to bring their vision to life. For the 2025 Award, our jury selected five finalists from 72 applications received from around the world. On 10 November, the finalists presented their proposals live ahead of the final decision in an event open to the international research community.
The 2025 Early Career Award Finalists
Understanding and Mitigating the Impact of AI on Scientific Cognition and Research Integrity, by Laura Globig (New York University, USA)
“Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how research is conducted, offering both remarkable efficiency gains and new risks. This project will systematically study and optimize scientists’ use of AI to foster rigor, reliability, and robustness. We will investigate how scientists use tools like ChatGPT and develop an AI-driven intervention to promote open science practices. By understanding real-world usage and shaping AI towards positive outcomes, we aim to ensure that AI’s growing role in research enhances rather than undermines scientific integrity.”
→ Watch the project presentation here
Image2Model Exchange: Democratizing AI analysis through FAIR data and model sharing, by Hernan Andres Morales Navarrete (Universidad De Las Américas, Ecuador)
“Image2Model Exchange fosters a reciprocal bartering ecosystem where researchers exchange embryonic development imaging data for ready-to-use, AI-generated analytical models. This FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) compliant initiative democratizes access to advanced computational tools, accelerates discovery, and builds toward a foundational, cross-species AI model of embryogenesis by leveraging community contributions worldwide.”
→ Watch the project presentation here
High Resolution Climate Dataset for West Africa: A Service for Climate Protection and Energy Transitions, by Team Lead Aissatou Ndiaye (University of Augsburg, Germany)
“The project addresses a pressing knowledge gap in one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions, using a transparent, open-access, and collaborative approach to provide the first and high-resolution regional climate datasets. This will empower climate protection and energy transitions and set a new standard for regional modelling in the Global South. The open-access model will be available on GitHub for collaborative expansion.”
→ Watch the project presentation here
UMUD: A Web Application to Address the Need for Open Research Data and Reproducibility in Musculoskeletal Ultrasonography, by Team Lead Paul Ritsche (University of Basel, Switzerland)
“UMUD is a novel, centralized repository for musculoskeletal ultrasonography datasets, standardizing data access and integration to address critical gaps in both healthy and pathological conditions. By offering detailed metadata, benchmark datasets, and tools for automated image analysis, UMUD fosters reproducible and innovative research as well as future clinical applications in musculoskeletal health. It promotes open science, transparency, and collaborative research and ensures long-term metadata archiving.”
→ Watch the project presentation here
Erring rigorously – On quantifying the impact of errors in the wet lab on downstream analysis, by Maximilian Sprang (University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany)
“By systematically introducing errors during wet lab sequencing workflows, we aim to measure their impact on downstream analysis using our established machine learning tool for quality prediction. Building on prior work in functional genomics and in the concept of Quality Imbalance, we aim to bridge bioinformatics and experimental design to improve reproducibility and data interpretation in real-world research settings.”
→ 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.