EDITORIAL Corresponding Author: N. Rezaei Research Center for Immunodeficiencies, Children's Medical Center Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Tel: +98 21 66576573, Fax: +98 21 66929235, E-mail address: rezaei_nima@tums.ac.ir U100: An Innovative USERN Platform for Education and Research Without Borders Sara Momtazmanesh1,2, Farzaneh Rahmani1,2, Farnaz Delavari1,2, Zahra Vahedi1, Saleheh Ebadirad1, Mahsa Keshavarz- Fathi1,2, Marjan Moallemian1, Saboura Ashkevarian1, Mohammad Reza Kolahi1, Alireza Samimiat1, Nahid Raei1,2, Pouria Rouzrokh1,2, Samira Alesaeidi1,2, Ali Jaberipour1, Sara Bakhshi1, Sasan Paryad-Zanjani1, Matjaz Perc1,3,4,5, Lucina Q. Uddin1,6, Abdelkader Allali1,7, Kathleen Sullivan1,8, Abbas Taher1,9, Safa Baris1,10, Ahmet Ozen1,10, Elif Karakoc-Aydiner1,10, Juan Carlos Aldave1,11, Amir Hamzah Abdul Latiff1,12, Waleed Al-Herz1,13, Prathip Phantumvanit1,14, Anzhela Stashchak1,15, Oleksandr Kryvenko1,15, Mykola Stashchak1,15, Didik Utomo1,16, Deepak Salunke1,17,18, Roya Kelishadi1,19, Mojtaba Hedayati1,20, Shahrokh MirzaHosseini1,21, Anastasiia Bondarenko1,22, Ekaterini Goudouris1,23, Antonio Condino-Neto1,24, Duarte Nuno Vieira1,25, Timo Ulrichs1,26, Dainius Pavalkis1,27, László Rosivall1,21,28, Hans Ochs1,29, Nima Rezaei1,2,30 1 Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), The World 2 School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3 Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia 4 Complexity Science Hub Vienna, Vienna, Austria 5 Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan 6 Brain Connectivity and Cognition Lab, Coral Gables, Florida, USA 7 Moroccan Association Hassanian for Health and Environment (AMHES), Rabat, Morocco 8 Children's Hospital Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 9 Naba-Alhayat Foundation for Medical Sciences and Healthcare, Najaf, Iraq 10 Division of Pediatric Allergy/Immunology, Marmara University Hospital, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey 11 Hospital Nacional Edgardo Rebagliati Martins, Lima, Peru 12 Allergy and Immunology Centre, Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 13 Department of Pediatrics, Al-Sabah Hospital, Kuwait, Kuwait 14 Faculty of Dentistry, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand 15 Kharkiv National Medical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine 16 Nusantara Institute of Science and Technology (NUSCIENTECH), Indonesia 17 Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India 18 Punjab University (PU), Chandigarh, India 19 Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran 20 Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran 21 Avicenna International College, Budapest, Hungary 22 Pediatric Infectious Disease and Pediatric Immunology Department, Shupyk National Medical Academy for Postgraduate Education, Kiev, Ukraine 23 Pediatrics Department, Medical School, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brazil 24 Department of Immunology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil 25 Department of Forensic Medicine, Ethics and Medical Law, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal 26 Institute for Research in International Assistance, Akkon University for Human Sciences, Berlin, Germany 27 Medical University Astana, Nur- Sultan, Kazakhstan 28 Institute of Translational Medicine, International Nephrology Research and Training Center, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary 29 University of Washington and Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA 30 Research Center for Immunodeficiencies, Children's Medical Center Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran "Two heads are better than one," or "too many cooks spoil the broth"! This is the old dispute of two doctrines in scientific production. Two schools that have each addressed a countless number of questions in the history of science: the collaborators and the solos. Here in the Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), we relate to the former school, introducing the "U100", a collaborative USERN 2 Acta Medica Iranica, Vol. 58, No. 1 (2020) platform for research among at least 100 scientific centers around the globe (Figure 1). Scientists can contribute to building the future by educating talented youngsters, which is made possible by networking the major role players. Modern education defends the figure of the teacher as a facilitator of the learning process. Learning should, therefore, be the result of a collaborative process between teachers and students. So must behave research too: turn into a collaborative process to build knowledge, covering all fields of cooperation, erasing borders. Collaborative research is a growing trend with outstanding merits and can entail any research-related activity, from sharing skills, techniques, and knowledge, to exchange programs and cooperative projects. Collaborative research provides us with access to unique study populations and facilities and means to publish multi-center and multi-national papers that are proved to reach higher cite scores and impact (1,2). Last but not least, learning about different nationalities, and the way they solve common problems can be a source for the formation of novel ideas, an opportunity offered only through international interactions (3). Despite the considerable advantages of multi-national collaborative endeavors in science, there remain several challenges to tackle. To begin with, many institutions do not have the required framework to foster these collaborations (4). There might be significant challenges in establishing clear and effective communication between collaborators, and the outpouring amount of data and ideas might confuse the responsible side to integrate the results and write the final paper/report. These confusions usually result in a collaborative project taking longer than a non- collaborative one (5). These shortages, along with the compelling need for cooperative scientific projects, highlight the need for an organization to identify, assess, and allocate research resources and facilitate communications that result in multi-national and multi- center research initiatives. USERN was established on January 1st, 2016, to promote professional, scientific research, and education worldwide (6-9). USERN is honored to have over 10,000 members from all five continents with thirteen Nobel and two Abel laureates and more than 350 world top 1% scientists as Advisory Board members (10). USERN members are involved in more than 80 active research interest groups, and the numbers are still counting. After four years of active scientific diplomacy and establishment of more than 50 USERN Offices and 60 USERN Memorandums of Agreement (MOU), USERN announces the inauguration of “U100”, an innovative platform for scientific exchange, education and Research activities without border across the globe. U100 is USERN's next step towards the goal of making sciences borderless, this time tackling the border between countries and between academia. U100 marks the collaborative network of at least one- hundred universities and institutes from thirty-five countries under the brand name of USERN. Members of U100 have agreed on expanding collaborations in scientific programs, exchanges, and training of young researchers, sharing the best-practice, and co- organizing meetings, workshops, and expert committees, based upon mutual interests and benefits. U100 members are universities and institutes working in all fields of science, including formal, physical, chemical, biological, medical, and social sciences. U100 envisions an outstanding environment for reciprocal scientific exchange all around the world by removing the borders between countries and disciplines and focusing on junior scientists in collaborative activities. It is U100's mission to (1) ease the communication between different institutions, (2) support voluntary collaborative projects between members, (3) promote international collaborative projects, (4) advocate benefits for all collaborative members, and (5) raise awareness of the importance of international collaborations. S. Momtazmanesh, et al. Acta Medica Iranica, Vol. 58, No. 1 (2020) 3 Figure 1. The map of Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN). References 1. Chinchilla-Rodriguez Z, Sugimoto CR, Lariviere V. Follow the leader: On the relationship between leadership and scholarly impact in international collaborations. PLoS One 2019;14:e0218309. 2. Breugelmans JG, Roberge G, Tippett C, Durning M, Struck DB, Makanga MM. Scientific impact increases when researchers publish in open access and international collaboration: A bibliometric analysis on poverty-related disease papers. PLoS One 2018;13:e0203156. 3. Francisco JS. International Scientific Collaborations: A Key to Scientific Success. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2015;54:14984-5. 4. Parker M, Kingori P. Good and Bad Research Collaborations: Researchers' Views on Science and Ethics in Global Health Research. PLoS One 2016;11:e0163579. 5. Sushama Sivakumar JF. Collaborations: Pros and Cons Bethesda, MD: The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB); 2016 (Available from: https://www.ascb.org/careers/41032-2/.) 6. Rezaei N. Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN):a New Horizon for Science. Acta Med Iran 2016;54:1-3. 7. Rezaei N. Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN): To Make the Knowledge Without Borders. Acta Med Iran 2017;55:1-5. 8. Rezaei N. Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN): Twinkling Stars Unite to Make the World Glow. Acta Med Iran 2018;56:1-3. 9. Rahmani F K-FM, Hanaei S, Aminorroaya A, Delavari F, Paryad-Zanjani S, Sadat Ahmadi N, Akbari P, Ashkevarian S, Barghi F, Ebadirad S, Jaberipour A, Kolahi MR, Moallemian M, Pourebrahimi A, Samimiat A, Vahedi Z, Ladi Seyedian S-S, Rezaei N. Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN): Step Strong in Scientific Networking. Acta Med Iran 2019;57:1-4. 10. Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN) (Available from: https://usern.tums.ac.ir/) https://usern.tums.ac.ir/