The ELTE PPK Faculty Innovation Award was presented for the first time at the Researchers’ Forum event on 25 March. The award was won by Zoltán Kekecs, a university lecturer at the Institute of Psychology, for his project PreCheck, which supports the credibility of research.
The Faculty of Education and Psychology launched the Faculty Innovation Award with the aim of strengthening a culture of innovation amongst staff and supporting ideas and developments that contribute to the renewal of research, teaching and their application in society.
The 18 entries received were assessed by Dean Andrea Dúll, Faculty Innovation Manager Tímea Gedeon and Dániel Magyar, Director of the ELTE Innovation Centre. The winner of the award was announced at the faculty’s annual academic and networking event, the Researchers’ Forum.
“The diversity of the proposals also shows that a valuable and significant part of ELTE’s innovation potential lies here in the faculty – and, fortunately, it is no longer untapped, as more and more know-how and trademark applications are finding their way to us.”
– highlighted Dániel Magyar.
The award-winning PreCheck project is an artificial intelligence-based digital assistant capable of carrying out a detailed assessment of pre-registered research plans and identifying gaps and inconsistencies in research descriptions. The aim of the development is to provide professionally sound feedback as early as the pre-registration stage, thereby increasing the transparency of research. This not only assists researchers in their work but also supports journal editors and peer reviewers in reviewing papers more quickly and effectively.
Zoltán Kekecs is developing the project as a member of the Behavioral Medicine and Research Credibility Laboratory, in collaboration with international partners. Upon receiving the award, he emphasised that although new AI tools are appearing every day, a significant proportion of them do not prove to be genuinely useful. As he put it:
“The real innovation in our solution is that we assess whether it is actually effective, and we assure users of this.”
The prize comes with a net grant of 1 million forints, which the winner may use to further develop their innovative idea. The financial support is complemented by professional mentoring from the ELTE Centre for Innovation, which assists with the practical implementation of the project. All faculty researchers applying for the prize will receive this professional support.