The Festival for awarding the USERN Prize

1.    Background

All around the world, thousands of scientists are making the best of their efforts to find solutions for the scientific problems in their field of specialty, in order to promote life situations and make the universe a more befitting host for all the living creatures.

Having the glory of an outstanding achievement in mind, it should not be forgotten that diligence in the path has an equal importance. Thinking on a world with the “sciences without borders”, which means the interdisciplinary sciences without any geographical borders, made us make something different in the world! We believe that our lives are too short, while once we learn something, we realize that we are enough old to do something; so, sharing experiences with talented juniors and encouraging them to continue the correct way on science might lead to a better world in the future.

Purposing on acknowledging junior scientists for all their efforts and achievements, and encouraging them to proceed with their goals, the Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN) was established. The USERN Prize is to be awarded for the first time at the closing ceremony of 1^st USERN congress. The operational plan has been briefly described in the following sessions.

2.    The History and Origin

The Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN) has been inaugurated in 2015 as an independent organization with the main purpose of peaceful and humanitarian promotion of education and research, universally. It comprises of top 1% scientists in all 21 scientific fields as the advisory board members who would manage and supervise the educational and research programs in their field of specialty. The executive members in both educational and research programs would be loyal to ethical principles and put their efforts to direct the network for final goal of serving the humanity in all aspects. Designing the educational programs in different fields and levels, conducting research projects resulting in articles, books or patents as the main products, and providing an ethical scientific environment for scientists and researchers to work in would be included in the USERN operational content.

3.    USERN Prize Awarding Festival

USERN prize is an international award, established by the USERN, which would be annually bestowed to junior scientists or researchers less than 40 years of age for any novel advancement or achievement in scientific education, research, or serving the humanity in five scientific fields including Formal Sciences, Physical-Chemical Sciences, Biological Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences.

The International Festivals for Awarding USERN prize have been held on November 10^th and the prize was bestowed in the World Science Day for Peace and Development (November 10^th). The host of the festivals were Tehran (Iran), Kharkov (Ukraine), Reggio Calabria (Italy), Budapest (Hungary), Iran (Tehran), Turkey (Istanbul), Oman (Muscat), and Yerevan (Armenia) during 2016-2023.

4.    Objectives

• Promoting universal peace in the scientific world


• Developing international scientific communication in order to globalize the scientific world


• Introducing creative and diligent junior scientists to the scientific world


• Motivating and encouraging junior researchers and scientists in their field and to promote their universal scientific status in order to promote their scientific efforts


• Identifying powerful young minds who could potentially cooperate in USERN scientific programs and projects in the future


• Encouraging and promoting the interdisciplinary fields in the universal scale


• Promoting hopefulness, self-confidence, and effort-value among young scientists


• Informing the academic world about the importance of valuing the science and scientific efforts

5.    Organization

• All junior scientists and researchers less than 40 years of age who has conducted a novel research, educational, or humanity service program or proposed a novel theory proceeded with a scientific approach could apply for the prize through the registration link in USERN website.


• The candidates will be refereed and scored by the international jury comprised of a number of Nobel laureates and top 1% scientists in the respective field accordingly to pre-planned scoring criteria.


• The USERN Prize will be given every year on from 2016 on November 10^th the; the World Science Day for Peace and Development; in each of the areas: “Medical Sciences”, “Biological Sciences”, “Physical-Chemical Sciences”, “Social Sciences”, and “Formal Sciences” to individuals with an exceptional and prominent work, especially with a multidisciplinary approach. The reviewing committee would be those among the “Nobel Prize winners” and “Top 1% of world scientists, according to the ESI”, while we hope to have the chance of hosting a number of Nobel Laureates in the Congress.


• The USERN prize will be awarded to the top candidates in each field who will be invited to attend the festival by USERN grant. 


• The first three days of the festival will be scheduled for expert meetings and conferences. The festival will also provide the opportunity of attending the meetings and conferences for the enthusiasts who could register separately for the meetings through the website.


• The awarding day which will be the closing ceremony as well will be held guesting the awarded candidates, the invited jury, the honorary guests, and the participants who have registered for the meetings and conferences.

6.    Executive Calendar

• Inviting the international jury, including top 1% scientists worldwide, for cooperation: January 1^st, 2024 to March 31^st, 2024


• The universal announcement of the festival and beginning of registration: February 1^st, 2024


• Deadline for registration of candidates: June 1^st, 2024


• Initial assessment of candidates and proposed works: June 1^st-15^th, 2024


• Final referee of candidates by the international jury: June 16^th-July 15^th, 2024


• Notification of final decision to the Laureates through the email: August 2024


• Formal invitation of the winners and honorary guests: September 2024


• Deadline for registration of participants in Congress: September 31^st, 2024


• Executive works for holding the Congress and the Festival (hotel reservation for international guests, preparation of the place for holding the festival and the closing ceremony, coordination for scientific and social event): September 1^st- October 31^st, 2024




• Festival Exposition: November 8-10th, 2024


• Festival Ceremony: November 10th, 2024

7.    Awards

The 1st Prize Delegate "USERN Award" includes:

- 5,000$* award for Promoting Advancement of Scientific Knowledge in a responsible manner to address human needs and aspirations

- USERN Prize statuettes presented along with USERN Medal

- Special USERN gift

- Free registration to all scientific and social events during the Congress
- Prize Laureates will be offered Honorary Advisory Board membership of USERN, for 3 years, according to the USERN Statute
- USERN Laureates will be offered a one-week scientific visit by their own cost in a number of top institutes worldwide, which will be credited for 2024-2026 (should be discussed and arranged, if interested)

* 5,000$ USERN award includes:

- 3,000 USD, including 2,000 USD cash award during the USERN 2024 Festival (November 10th) and up to 1,000 USD Travel Grant to attend the USERN Congress 2024.
- 2,000 USD USERN Grant for the establishment of an active interest group in USERN, leasing to the promotion of your scientific work and scientific output, which could be awarded to you during one of the future USERN Congress 2025-2027.

8.    Application

The applicants should submit their applications for USERN Prize 2024 from January via the online application form.

9.    USERN Laureates

USERN LAUREATES 2016

Floris De Lange (Netherlands) in Social Sciences | For: Expectation sharpens the visual response

Alexander Leemans (Belgium/Netherlands) in Medical Sciences | For: Processing and Visualization in Diffusion Imaging

Jamshid Aghaei (Iran) in Physical Sciences | For: Evaluating Technical Benefits and Risks of Renewable Energy Sources Increasing Penetration in Electrical Networks

Morteza Mahmoudi (Iran/USA) in Biological Sciences | For: Defining the Biological Identity of Nanotherapeutics for High Yield Cancer Therapy

Lucas Joppa (USA) in Formal Sciences | For: Technology for Nature

USERN LAUREATES 2017

Matjaž Perc (Slovenia) in Social Sciences | For: Transitions Towards Cooperation in Human Societies

Lucina Qazi Uddin (USA) in Medical Sciences | For: Brain Dynamics and Flexible Behavior in Autism and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity

Maria-Magdalena Titirici (UK) in Physical Sciences | For: The Design of Efficient and Low Cost Electrocatalysts Catalysts Without the Use of Critical Metals

Valentina Cauda (Italy) in Biological Sciences | For: Hybrid Immune-Eluding Nanocrystals as Smart and Active Theranostic Weapons Against Cancer -TrojaNanoHorse

Manlio De Domenico (Spain) in Formal Sciences | For: Multilayer Structure and Dynamics of the Physical World: Modeling the Complexity of Systems of Systems

USERN LAUREATES 2018

Igor Grossmann (Canada) in Social Sciences | For: Wisdom - Towards The Social and Behavioral Science of Sound Judgment

Gian Paolo Fadini (Italy) in Medical Sciences | For: ciRculating stEM cElls in DIAbetic complicaTIONs (REMEDIATION)

Xavier Moya (UK) in Physical Sciences | For: Barocaloric Materials for Environment-Friendly Solid -State Refrigeration

Alex Fornito (Australia) in Biological Sciences | For: Maps, Models, and Modifiers of Brain Changes in Psychosis

Jacob D Biamonte (Russia) in Formal Sciences | For: Quantum Enhanced Machine Learning

USERN LAUREATES 2019

Benjamin Sovacool (Denmark/UK) in Social Sciences | For: Social justice in an era of climate change and energy scarcity

Eugenia Morselli (Chile) in Medical Sciences | For: Mechanisms of hypothalamic autophagy in obesity

Giulia Grancini (Switzerland/Italy) in Physical Sciences | For: Multidimensional ferroelectric hybrid perovskites for advanced optoelectronics

Ajeet Kaushik (USA) in Biological Sciences | For: Nano-bio-technology for personalized healthcare

Lucas Lacasa (UK) in Formal Sciences | For: Bridging Signal Processing and Network Science

USERN LAUREATES 2020

Lianne Schamaal (Australia) in Social Sciences | for: A Global Alliance to Elucidate Neurobiological Signatures of Depression and Suicide

Mohammad Ali Shahbazi (Finland) in Medical Sciences | for: A Thermo-responsive Biopolymeric Microimplant for the Treatment of Autoimmune Disorders

Daniel Sauter (Germany) in Biological Sciences | for: Deciphering molecular determinants of coronavirus spread in the human population

Gregory Mark Allen Ashton (Australia) in Physical and Chemical Sciences | for: Black holes and neutron stars: enabling astrophysics with Bilb y

Dongrui Wu (China) in Formal Sciences | for: Signal Processing and Machine Learning for Calibration-free and Secure Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs)

USERN LAUREATES 2021

Daniel King (Australia) in Social Sciences | for: Empowering vulnerable populations to overcome unhealthy gaming habits and gaming disorder

Hasan Abolhassani (Sweden) in Medical Sciences | for: Integrative Multi-Omics Analysis of Unsolved Common Variable Immunodeficiency

Federico Bella (Italy) in Biological Sciences | for: From air to fertilizers: zero-impact agriculture of the future

Minghao Yu (Germany) in Physical and Chemical Sciences | for: Developing sustainable energy storage devices with resource-abundant raw materials

Xudong Zhao (China) in Formal Sciences | for: Control synthesis of switched systems

USERN LAUREATES 2022

Fabien Lotte (France) in Formal Sciences | for: BrainConquest: Boosting Brain-Computer Communication with high Quality User Training, for Healthy and Motor-Impaired Users alike

Mirjana Dimitrievska (Switzerland) in Physical and Chemical Sciences | for: SMARTCELL - Sustainable Materials for development of Advanced Renewable Technologies for the next generation solar CELLs

Jianing Fu (USA) in Biological Sciences | for: Functional Profile, Migration Pattern and Microenvironment of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Ectopic Organs in Physiological and Inflammatory Conditions

Sara De Biasi (Italy) in Medical Sciences | for: Unravelling the role of MHC class I–related molecule–restricted T cells on response to anti-PD-1 therapy in metastatic melanoma

Joseph Firth (UK) in Social Sciences | for: Implementing Lifestyle Medicine into Youth Mental Healthcare: Improving physical and mental health outcomes in young people

USERN LAUREATES 2023

Naveed Akhtar (Australia) in Formal Sciences | for: Enabling transparent and trustworthy Artificial Intelligence

Hailiang Wang (USA) in Physical and Chemical Sciences | for: Advancing Molecular Electrocatalysis for Renewable Energy Storage and Environmental Remediation

Prashant Kesharwani (India) in Biological Sciences | for: Survivin targeted siRNA using cancer selective nanoparticles for triple negative breast cancer therapy

Hao Chen (China) in Medical Sciences | for: A tunable microgel with sustained hierarchy releasing of macrobiotics for the treatment of enteritis

Katrien Fransen (Belgium) in Social Sciences | for: From autocracy to empowerment: Harnessing the human potential for improved team effectiveness and enhanced well-being across cultures