Royan International Research Award - Royan Institute

The Eleventh ROYANInternational Research AwardINTRODUCTIONIntroductionIntroductionAfter a decade of holding Royan International Research Award, I am so pleased that award secretariat hasreceived more research articles than ever in the 11th one. 358 research articles from 43 countries is pleasingnews which makes the responsibility of executive committee demanding. Furthermore, when the quality ofthese articles is high, applying proper and fair methods of evaluation requires meticulousness. Definitely, if themajority of participants in the award do not perceive the nominated research articles to be worthy of nominationin comparison to theirs, the participants and their colleagues will not desire to participate in the next awards.The competition among the top nominated articles in each group was so close this year that according to thelocal jury board suggestion; the participants in the second and third place in each group have been invited asinvited speakers to the 11th congress on reproductive biomedicine and 6th congress on stem cells to presenttheir outstanding researches.The presence of Iranian scientists among international winners made this award so pleasant for us. This year,also, for the first time the nomination committee decided to present the Kazemi Prize to one of the worldoutstanding scientists, Prof. Rudolf Jaenisch, who has enormous scientific contribution to the world’s scientificsociety. This event adds to the quality of award, as well.As emphasized in previous awards, the goal of holding the award is not a mere scientific competition. Awardis a movement toward establishing proper relationships and scientific cooperation with the purpose of reachingto high humanitarian goals among Iranian scientists and the international ones. Fortunately, in previous awardwe could reach our goals and this year, we will hope to have such relationships and cooperation again.Here, I would like to express my thanks to all the scientists who submit their valuable research papers tothe award and made the executive committee pleased and delighted. Also, I would like to give my sincereappreciation to the executive committee and the prominent national and international professors who made anendless effort in the jury board.As annual report of the institute is published in the award book, I would like to present my thanks also to thestaffs- the executive managers and members, researchers, scientists, and physicians-and whoever adds to thespiritual joyous of the institute through their encouragement.I am sure that although Dr. Saeid Kazemi Ashtiani, the late founder of Royan institute and award that made anendless effort to reach his goals, is not among us, his soul is in pleasure.May God bless his soul, Insha’Allah!Gourabi H., PhDAward Chairman and Royan Institute President5