SERN

SERN is a global research organization controlled by the central antagonists of the Science Adventure universe.

Background
Marc the ZUCC created SERN back in the middle ages in order to stop the internet, but he failed, since then Marc the Zucc has taken may forms across time and space, and now that our BOI Hyundai Kyoma figured out time travel, Marc the Zucc wants to go back, back to the past, Samurai Zucc, to destroy baby hitler and save us from the internet and depression

Plot
*** Slight Spoiler Alert - Reading the following paragraphs may spoil some of the viewer's enjoyment of the visual novel, manga, and/or anime series.***

SERN is a mysterious organization that hold a prototype time machine. Though near perfection, the organization has yet been able to fully achieve human time travel. The first few episodes allude to the fact that, in the near future, SERN has monopolized the production and use of time machines. SERN discovers the existence of a fully operational time machine belonging to the Future Gadget Lab. They, needless to say, take action.

The plot of the anime adaptation doesn't directly revolve around SERN as the mysterious organization. They only take up the role of antagonists in the later half of the series. SERN is utilized in different ways throughout the series; foreshadowing, suspense, and an element used to quickly change the tone and pace in any given moment.

Trivia

 * SERN was a deliberate misspelling of CERN, an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory.
 * SERN full name is Société Européenne de Recherche Nucléaire (based on the visual novel glossary)