BITSS is thrilled to share that it has received the 2023 Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research in the Institutional category. The Einstein Foundation Berlin made the announcement in a statement on November 14, 2023.

This annual award recognizes individual researchers, institutions, and early career researchers whose work helps to improve the quality and advance the robustness, reliability, and transparency of research. 

BITSS won the award, in part, for its active role in the “credibility revolution” in science, through which it promotes careful experimentation and supports efforts to make replication and verification commonplace.

“Now in its third year, the award shines a spotlight on individuals and projects that exhibit outstanding dedication, but also the courage to view research practice in a more critical light,” said Martin Rennert, Chair of the Einstein Foundation’s Executive Board.

Since 2012, BITSS has committed to improving the credibility of science by advancing transparency, reproducibility, rigor, and ethics in research through the generation of evidence on open science problems and solutions, increased access to open science education, and strengthening of the scientific ecosystem. Today, its trainings, tools, and network of scholars have reached thousands of researchers around the world.

These efforts have contributed to broader changes among scholars. The “State of Social Science (3S)” survey, collected between 2018 and 2020, documented the growing use of open science tools and practices, finding that over 80 percent of social science researchers had pre-registered a study, shared data, or shared study instruments — up from 25 percent in 2009.

“As the most active organization providing open science training for social scientists around the world, I am proud of the role BITSS has played in accelerating these dramatic and important shifts in social science research norms,” said Edward Miguel, Faculty Co-Director of BITSS and Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Einstein Foundation Berlin was founded in 2009 to promote scientific research and excellence in Berlin, and to connect and cultivate partnerships between various academic and non-academic research institutions in their city. The Institute Award includes €200,000 in prize funds and an invitation to the awards ceremony in Berlin in March 2024.

Read the full press release here and follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @ucbitss for more updates and information about the prize ceremony.