This award recognises early career researchers whose work advances the quality, transparency and reproducibility in science. Christopher and Helena will receive the €100,000 prize at a ceremony in March 2025 in Berlin.

The PixelQuality project stems from the urgent need for standardised treatment of microscopy images included in scientific publications. To encourage good scientific practice in the publication of images, Christopher and Helena spearheaded a global initiative, gathering imaging experts across academic, industry and the publishing industry to develop clear and user-friendly guidelines for the publication of images and image analysis. These guidelines were published in Nature Methods in 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-023-01987-9).

We congratulate Christopher and Helena on this achievement, and we are eager to follow the development of this excellent initiative to support data transparency and reproducibility in scientific publishing.