VISION

We envision a reliable network of universally validated resources including ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources in order to launch and facilitate authentic, ethical and professional scientific research intended to improve human life.

MISSION

Our mission is to provide scientific and technical infrastructure in order to universally:
1. Validate ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources and determine their scientific credibility and reliability
2. Classify and grade ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources
3. Improve ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources
4. Connect and share ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources considering their scope and their grades and establish their collaboration
5. Allocate facilities, human, financial and educational resources to ideas with the most importance for improvement of human life

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

1. USERN is committed to uphold high technical and ethical standards in all processes in the network.
2. USERN is committed to ensure that all processes in the network are in accordance with highest ethical and scientific values and to appropriately address any unethical issue such as research misconduct, data fabrication, falsification, misrepresentation or plagiarism.
3. USERN is committed to respect and encourage respect for fundamental human rights and freedom.
4. USERN is committed to respect the privacy of its members and not to disclose their confidential issues and provide and protect confidential communications.
5. USERN is committed to treat all members with honesty, dignity, respect and sensitivity and appreciate the value of diversity and to avoid discrimination against its members on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or other factors that are not related to their scientific competence and integrity.
6. USERN is committed to respect intellectual property, to honor patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property and to give credit where credit is due.
7. USERN is committed to take responsibility for all its actions, results, and risks to all members in the network.
8. USERN is committed to use outcomes of its actions as opportunities for improvement.
9. USERN is committed to disseminate easily accessible and understandable member related policies and processes to all members in the network.

10. USERN is committed to provide accurate and timely reports of its activities to all members.
11. USERN is committed to strive for balanced and diverse representation on its governing bodies.
12. USERN is committed to apply decisions made democratically and to consider the best interest of the members and public good.
13. USERN is committed not to cooperate with political parties, military, militia or terrorist groups.
14. In all processes in the network, USERN is committed to consider only scientific and ethical values determined democratically and universally and not to consider any political, financial, racial, religious or national interests in decision making.
15. USERN is committed not to take money from representatives of political parties and military and militia groups.
16. USERN will only accept funding that does not compromise its ability to address issues freely, thoroughly and objectively.

 

ORGANIZATION CHART

Governance and management is separated in USERN. The Policy Making Council is responsible for overall policy and direction of the network, and delegates the responsibility of day-to-day operations to the executive director and managers (staff). In addition, the advisory board provides non-binding strategic advice to both Policy Making Council and staff in a number of matters.

STATUTE

The first draft of the Statute of USERN was written on 21 January 2015, which was revised on 20 March 2016 to be signed by a number of top scientists worldwide. The USERN Statute would be inaugurated during the 1st USERN Festival on Nov 10th, 2016. In the first three years, the Statute may be modified by the advisory board and by the approval of both Policy Making Council and the President.  

                                                                                                Article I.        Name and Purpose

Section I.             Name

The network shall be known as “universal scientific education and research network”.The official acronym for the network shall be “USERN”.

Section II.           Purpose

Here by in this agreement we define USERN as follows:

USERN is organized exclusively for advancement of authentic, ethical and professional scientific research and education and consequently advancement of science for non-military purposes and public good. In this definition, “Science is a systematic study of nature and manners of an object and the natural universe that is established around measurement, experiment, observation and formulation of laws.” USERN is to be established as an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organization and network for peaceful non-military scientific executions and policy making.

Section III.              Vision

Members of this agreement believe that USERN will one day become a reliable network of universally validated resources including ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources in order to launch and facilitate authentic, ethical and professional scientific research intended to improve universal science policy making and human life.

Section IV.              Mission

Our mission is to provide scientific and technical infrastructure in order to universally:

IV i. Validate and improve ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources and determine their scientific credibility and reliability

IV ii.      Connect and share ideas, facilities, human, financial and educational resources considering their scope and their grades and establish their collaboration

IV iii.     Take a leading role in the scientific world through making universal science policies that will be established and executed for the promotion of human life.

 

                                                                                         Article II.        Organizational Structure

Section I.                 Governing structure

Governance and management shall be separated in USERN. The Policy Making Council is responsible for overall policy and direction of the network; and delegates responsibility of operations to the Executive Director and managers (staff). In addition, the Advisory Board provides non-binding strategic advice to both Policy Making Council and staff in a number of matters.

Section II.              USERN initiation

The first President of USSERN would be the founder responsible for establishment of USERN statute and structure. His term of presidency would start after establishment of first Policy Making Council comprised of at least 3 members in each different sub-branches of science.

Section III.                 Financial structure

USERN shall be established as a non-profit network and therefore, all financial resources, including network incomes shall belong to the network and would be expended in the network in order to proceed with scientific missions. The stockholders and members of USERN shall not financially benefit from USERN as salary or any personal pension. Decision making on incomes and expenses of network shall belong to the Policy Making Council with a three-quarter vote for any decision on network expenses. The fiscal/financial year of the USERN shall start January 1^st through December 31^st.

 

                                                                                                 Article III.        Advisory Board

Section I.     Role

The Advisory Board is responsible for providing non-binding strategic advice to both Policy Making Council and staff in a number of matters and dissolving disputes in the network. In addition, they can strengthen the brand name of USERN via its advertisement and dissemination. Advisory Board shall advise the Policy Making Council on strategic matters and its members have the privilege of attending all USERN Policy Making Council meetings and participating in discussions. Advisory Board members shall be categorized and sorted into one of the different fields of science and they can elect their representatives in Policy Making Council with their votes.

Section II.   Composition

The Advisory Board shall have unlimited number of members who are outstanding in their field of study and met the eligibility requirements, including top 1% scientists based on the ESI, Nobel Laureates, Abel Prize Laureates, Copley Medal Recipients and USERN prize winners.

Clause I. Any scientist nominated by at least three Advisory Board members could be potentially voted by Policy Making Council (a three-quarter vote) to be included in the Advisory Board.

Section III.        Resignation

Resignation from the Advisory Board must be in writing and received by the President.

Section IV.        Duration of Advisory Board membership  

Any renowned scientist could potentially become the member of Advisory Board at the initiation of fulfilling the Advisory Board membership criteria. The Advisory Board list would be updated in 3-year intervals to include new members of Advisory Board.

Section V.   Termination of membership in Advisory Board

The membership of any Advisory Board member shall be terminated following disrespect to USERN statute and/or guiding principle at any time by a majority of the vote (a three-quarter vote) of the Policy Making Council members. The Advisory Board member would also have the right to terminate his/her membership through sending formal request to the USERN President.

 

                                                                                         Article IV.        Policy Making Council

Section I.     Roles

The Policy Making Council is responsible for overall policy and direction of the network, setting policy, and providing a strategic executive plan. The board shall include at least one representative of each field of science, the President, and the Executive Director as a non-voting member. They would be also responsible for nominating and electing the President.

Section II.   Composition

The Policy Making Council members would be elected from among Advisory Board members who have fulfilled their membership for at least three consecutive years and have gained the majority of the vote of the Advisory Board in each major branch of science.

Section III.      Term

All board members shall serve a 3-year term, but are eligible for re-election for another consecutive term. They can be re-elected after 3 years interval.

Section IV.        Decision-making

The Policy Making Council has the right to and is responsible for making decisions for all issues of the network, except for the main structure of the network including vision, mission, and the concept of Policy Making Council and Advisory Board. Issues regarding establishing a new activity shall arise from Advisory Board members, Policy Making Council members or Executive Director. These decisions should be discussed in a board meeting and be approved by the majority of the vote (50% + 1 vote) of the board members. Any issues regarding the Policy Making Council itself should be approved by the majority of the vote (50% + 1 vote) of the Advisory Board. Establishing any clause or defining a new part in the statue shall be discussed by the Policy Making Council and be approved by at least a three-quarter vote of the Advisory Board members.

Section V.   Removal

The membership ofa Policy Making Council member shall be terminated from the board by the majority of the vote (a three-quarter vote) of the remaining board members due to not fulfilling his/her duties or poor performance or being proven inconsistent or performing incompatible activities and operations with those of USERN at any time

Clause: In case of removal or resignation of a Policy Making Council member, the new representative of the respected field shall be elected by the Advisory Board.

 

                                                                                                        Article V.        President

Section I.     Role

President is responsible for:

• Scheduling and setting agendas of Policy Making Council meetings.


• Leading discussions at meetings; Following agendas and observing all rules of order.


• Coordinating any board activity outside of the meetings.


• Overseeing the hiring and evaluating the performance of the Executive Director.


• Ensuring the board performs its job well and evaluates its own performance.


• To be the official representative of USERN.

Section II.   Eligibility

A President shall be elected by the majority of the vote (50% + 1 vote) of the Policy Making Council members. A Policy Making Council member shall be nominated for President of the Policy Making Council.

Section III.            Terms

The President shall serve a 3-year term, but could be eligible for re-election for another consecutive term. They can be re-elected after 3 years interval.

 

                                                                                                    Article VI.        Membership

Section I.     Eligibility for membership

Application for membership shall be open to any scientist who has the following conditions:

ü  Supports the purpose statement, vision and mission in Article I, Sections III and IV.

ü  Accepts this statute and the guiding principles.

ü  Is not involved in any militia or terrorist groups.

ü  Completed the membership application.

Section II.   Annual dues

The amount required for annual dues of regular membership is free.

            Clause 1: In the case of other types of membership, the annual dues of the respective members would be assigned by a three-quarter vote of the members in the Policy Making Council.

Section III.      Rights of members

Each member shall be eligible to use the resources available in the network according to the rules and regulations of USERN.

Section IV.    Resignation

Any member may terminate his/her membership through contacting USERN authorities; and their resignation would be open through usual membership application. USERN authorities would terminate the membership of members who do not comply with principles of USERN statues; and readmission of these members would be dependent on the decision of respective authorities.

Section V.   Expulsion or suspension

A member shall be suspended or removed from the network due to disrespecting USERN statute and/or guiding principle upon approval of President or Executive Director.

 

                                                                                                              Article VII.  Staff

Section I.     Role

The basic duties of USERN staff shall be managing the entire USERN approved activities, adopt the plan of activities according to strategies developed by the Policy Making Council and is subject to the direction and control of the Policy Making Council.

Section II.           Composition

It shall comprise the Executive Director, managers and the respective management divisions as follows:

II i.   Support and Resource Development Division

This division is responsible for:

• Providing infrastructures for communication of Policy Making Council members, Advisory Board members and staff members.


• Maintenance and development of technical aspects of USERN network.


• Development of all resources of USERN via advertisement, dissemination, member recruitment and fundraising.


• Enforcing rules and regulations of USERN on members and other elements in the network and taking disciplinary actions.

II ii.  Scientific affairs division

This division is responsible for establishing scientific steering councils for each major branch of science. Any sub-division (including associations, interest groups, networks and etc) shall be supported by at least one of the Advisory Board members and shall be approved by the majority of the vote (50% + 1 vote) of the scientific steering councils for each major branch. Members of each branches of science can be nominated to be members of the respective scientific steering council and they shall be elected by votes of the members of that branch.

Clause:The membership of scientific steering council is not limited to the Advisory Board members. The criteria for membership of scientific steering council in each major branch of science would be established by the Policy Making Council.

II.ii.1.    Roles of scientific affairs

Scientific steering councils are responsible to provide:

• Scientific guidelines and educational materials and to define scientific processes for each research line for different fields.


• Scientific measures and guidelines for determining scientific credibility and reliability and to classify and grade elements in the network
  
  
  
  • Establishment of random supervisory councils which are responsible for making decision about disciplinary actions and supervision of educational and research projects.
  
  
  
  

Clause I: The Policy Making Council may create management committees as needed.

II iii. The Executive Director

II.iii.1.   Roles

The responsibilities of Executive Director shall include carrying out the organization’s goals and policies. The Executive Director will attend all board meetings, report on the progress of the network, answer questions of the board members and carry out the duties described in the job description. The board can designate other duties as necessary. Main duties of the Executive Director include:

• Hiring, firing, and supervising the staff according to the policies and strategies defined by the Policy Making Council.


• Managing and evaluating programs and operations according to the policies and strategies defined by the board.


• Identifying, acquiring, and managing resources according to the policies and strategies defined by the board.


• Preparing an annual budget according to board decisions on annual activities.


• Proposing policies and strategic initiatives to the board. Supporting the board in its work.


• Promoting the organization in the community.


• Supervising the infrastructures of staff including managing committees.

II.iii.2.   Eligibility

The President could nominate an Executive Director from either the board or staff members. The Executive Director then shall be elected by the majority of the vote (50% + 1 vote) of the Policy Making Council.

II.iii.3.   Term

The Executive Director shall serve a 3-year term, but could be eligible for re-election for another consecutive term.

II.iii.4.   Removal

The authorities of Executive Director could be assigned to another candidate in case of board decision, not respecting USERN statute or poor performance.

Section III.    Appointment

New members and current staff members shall be appointed by the Executive Director and upon approval of the President of the Policy Making Council.

Section IV.    Resignation

Resignation from the staff must be in writing and received by the Executive Director.

 

                                                                                   Article VIII.        Amendments and Validity

The statute and network policies would be reviewed in 3-year intervals and may be amended according to the inputs of Advisory Board and by approval of both Policy Making Council and President. The principles of statute except for vision and mission and basic structure of network may be amended when necessary by a three-quarter vote of the Advisory Board. Proposed amendments must be submitted to the President to be sent out with regular board announcements.

 

                                                                                                   Article IX.        USERN Prize

Section I.     Definition of USERN Prize and eligibility criteria

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 sciences, biological sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences.

The eligible candidates would either apply for the prize independently or be nominated by the Advisory Board members or any senior scientist in the respective field.

Section II.   The objectives of awarding USERN prize

The USERN prize shall be awarded annually for the following purposes:

• 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 promoting 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 universal scale.


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


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

Section I.                   The awards for USERN prize laureates

The prizes for the winners will include:

• USERN prize statute and medal.


• Financial grant for the best scientific work promotion.


• The travel grant for attending the festival, including attending the meetings and conferences, flight ticket, accommodation, and attending the social programs.


• The winners in each field will be offered a one week scientific visit to a number of top institutes worldwide with free accommodation, supported by the respective host which will be credited for one year.

Section II.                 Jury for evaluation of candidates

The jury shall comprise of at least 10 Advisory Board members in each major branch of science who would be responsible for evaluation and ranking of candidates according to defined criteria of selection and principles of ethics. The Policy Making Council members of each field shall annually nominate at least 10 Advisory Board members of each five major branches in order to form the jury. The Advisory Board members could also nominate candidates for receiving the USERN prize that would be then evaluated by the respective board.

Section III.    Selection criteria

The Policy Making Council shall be responsible for establishing and announcing the selection criteria for awarding USERN prize. Any amendments in principles of evaluative criteria shall be based on a majority of the vote of Policy Making Council members (a three-quarter vote) in each major branch of science. The eligible candidates would be evaluated according to their best scientific work or achievement and their scientific resume. The proposed works would be scored according to their contribution in research, education, and serving the humanity.

III i. Evaluation of the best scientific work of each candidate

All the proposed works in each of five scientific fields would be evaluated and judged together, irrespective of their aspect (research, education or serving the humanity). The evaluative criteria for assessment of the best scientific work would include Novelty, Significance, Rationality, Design of the project, Leadership, Teamwork, Productivity, Extent of the project, Interdisciplinarity, Multidimensionality, commitment to principles of Ethics, and Impact on human subjects.

III ii. Evaluation of the candidate's scientific resume

The scientific resumes would be evaluated in different aspects including educational, research, executive, and other backgrounds. The evaluation criteria for assessment of candidates’ resume in each aspect shall include:

• Educational background: educational achievements in the past 10 years, number of studied academic fields, highest academic educational degree, teaching experiences, conducting educational projects or proposing new educational curriculum, and educational impact on human subjects.


• Research background: published articles or books and their impact on science and human life considering their citation number, the H-index of candidate, the submitted patents considering the productivity, impact on science and human life, interdisciplinarity and extent of research projects.


• Executive background: the number and extent of executive projects, impact of conducted projects on science and human life.

 

* This statute was written in 9 articles and 34 sections and overall has 5 clauses.