According to the parties’ opinion, the agreement will give a new impetus to the development of cooperation not only with the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Almaty, its branch in Astana and universities, but also with other scientific centres of Kazakhstan. The document was signed during the visit to JINR of the delegation of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NAS RK), headed by President of the Board of NAS RK Kunsulu Zakarya, on 2 – 3 October, 2023.

At the meeting in the JINR Directorate, participants discussed issues of cooperation in the field of staff training, expansion of a number of joint research, and Kazakhstan’s participation in the JINR distributed computing network. Representatives of NAS RK visited JINR laboratories, where they got acquainted with the Institute’s flagship projects.

“Kazakhstan is one of the strongest strategic partners of the Joint Institute,” JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov said, welcoming the delegation in the JINR Directorate. He reminded that exactly a year ago he met with Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Kazakhstan.

“We have come to our home, to our friends. We intend to continue working with a new impulse, continuing fundamental and applied scientific research. We are facing big challenges set by the head of state. We are focused on continuing joint research,” Kunsulu Zakarya highlighted.

At the meeting, it was noted that the Kazakh national group was the largest at JINR. At the moment, from 80 to 100 people from Kazakhstan are working at the Institute. Staff rotation is gradually taking place. Young specialists who worked in Dubna and defended their dissertations return home and strengthen the science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The number of dissertations defended by Kazakh scientists at JINR is steadily growing. At the same time, representatives of Kazakhstan are engaged in projects of almost all laboratories of the Institute. “Many scientists who worked at JINR and returned to their homeland already have high titles and authorities,” Kunsulu Zakarya said.

Staff training in nuclear technology was called the main direction of joint cooperation, as well as cooperation in the fields of creating reactors and accelerators for industry, nuclear medicine, and biotechnology. The JINR distributed cloud infrastructure on the DIRAC platform, to which the Almaty Institute of Nuclear Physics is connected as well, is another point of interaction between Kazakhstan and JINR. As additional projects on expanding the range of topics for cooperation, participants proposed the use of nuclear physics methods in biomonitoring, as well as JINR’s participation in the creation of interdisciplinary centres in Kazakhstan in the areas of JINR research. The representatives of the Republic of Kazakhstan highly appreciated JINR’s expertise in the creation of accelerator technology and experimental facilities on derived neutron beams. The delegation expressed great interest in expanding cooperation with the Joint Institute in these areas.

The visit of the delegation of NAS of the Republic of Kazakhstan took place on the eve of the November meeting of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries of the JINR Member States in Almaty. The parties agreed to discuss joint projects in more detail at the CP session.

The delegation of the Academy of Sciences under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan included its President, a Doctor of Biological Sciences, a professor, a creator of the Kazakh QazCovid-in vaccine against coronavirus, a biological safety specialist Kunsulu Zakarya; Vice-President Abay Serikkanov, Director of the Science Department Ruslan Nurlybaev, Head of the Life & Health Sciences Division at the National Academy of Sciences under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Maxat Bulenbayev, a Plenipotentiary Representative of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan in JINR, Director General of the Institute of Nuclear Physics RSE of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Sayabek Sakhiyev, and Adviser to the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Russian Federation Yedil Khozeuly.

At the meeting in the Directorate, the JINR side was represented by Director Grigory Trubnikov, Vice-Director Sergey Dmitriev, Chief Scientific Secretary Sergey Nedelko, Head of the International Cooperation Department Otilia Ana Culicov, and Director of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions Sergey Sidorchuk.

During the visit to JINR, the delegation visited the factory of superconducting magnets, the Booster accelerator, and the MPD detector of the NICA Megascience Project under construction, as well as got acquainted with the IBR-2 Research Reactor and visited the Laboratory of Radiation Biology. The objects of the delegation’s visit also included the Superheavy Element Factory, the assembly shop of the Baikal-GVD Neutrino Telescope, and the Govorun Supercomputer. In addition, a meeting was held with members of the national group of the Republic of Kazakhstan in JINR.