On 28 May – 4 June 2022, a large visit of the delegation of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research to the Far Eastern Federal University took place. It was organized in the frames of the development of bilateral cooperation in accordance with the agreement on the opening of the JINR Information Centre on the basis of FEFU signed in May this year. Participants of the Institute’s delegation, which included representatives of all the laboratories and the JINR University Centre, gave a series of lectures for students, postgraduates, and scientists of FEFU and institutes of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. A number of thematic round tables, sessions, and meetings were held, including ones with representatives of the Primorsky Krai administration.

The meeting of the delegation with Acting Rector of FEFU Boris Korobets and representatives of the university administration was devoted to discussing priorities of the Information Centre, common tasks of JINR and FEFU partner network’s development in the Asia-Pacific region. The objectives for the development of promising areas of cooperation between the University and JINR in fundamental and applied research and training were specified.

“FEFU and JINR will train specialists, namely physicists, chemists, materials scientists, engineers, and IT specialists to solve scientific and applied problems that the Russian Federation faces today. Besides, at the meetings, research teams of the institutes of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and FEFU showed their interest in carrying out advanced research using unique megascience facilities of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. This will help us together not only to strengthen the economic component of our regions, but also to compete strongly in the global market. And, of course, in the near future we are planning that scientists of the Far East will pay Dubna a return visit,” Boris Korobets, the Acting Rector of FEFU said.

JINR Chief Scientific Secretary Sergey Nedelko noted at the meeting that the JINR Information Centre at FEFU should play an important role in attracting talented young people to natural science fields of study at the University, as well as simplify the development of cooperation between FEFU and JINR scientists on a wide range of strategically important areas of work.

The JINR delegation took part in a meeting with representatives of FEFU and the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, dedicated to the exchange of experience in international cooperation in science and education. Round tables were held in the areas of theoretical physics and IT.

The JINR’s instrumental base for the creation of megascience class installations, as well as the possibilities of training engineers and physicists for accelerator technology on the basis of the JINR University Centre became one of the topics of the round table on accelerator technology on 31 May. FEFU presented a project for the creation of RPS (Russian Photon Source) facility on Russky Island, in which NRC “Kurchatov Institute” acts as the general customer and developer. On the same day, an overview of the main directions of the JINR research programme and development strategy was presented at a meeting of the FEFU Scientific Council session.

On 1 June 2022, the JINR delegation and the FEFU leaders met with representatives of the Primorsky Krai administration with the participation of Elvira Shamonova, the Acting Deputy Chairman of Primorsky Krai and Minister of Education of Primorsky Krai, Nikolay Stetsko, the Deputy Chairman of the Primorsky Krai Government, who is responsible for economic development, industry, trade, vocational education, employment, project management, tourism, and Sergey Dubovitsky, the Minister of Vocational Education and Employment of Primorsky Krai. During the meeting, the parties discussed JINR’s experience in working with school teachers and students in order to popularise modern science, as well as the role and potential of the JINR Information Centre at FEFU as a coordinator of the Institute’s interaction with educational and scientific organizations in the region. Prospects of cooperation between organizations of the region and the Institute in the fields of science were also examined.

Later that day, a round table was held at the Presidium of the Far Eastern Branch of RAS , where possibilities of bilateral cooperation with a focus on interdisciplinary areas and possibilities of the JINR Information Centre at FEFU were discussed. As a result of the round table, a number of meetings were held between representatives of the JINR delegation with colleagues from the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East FEB RAS, the Far East Geological Institute, the Institute of Applied Mathematics, and the Institute of Automation and Control Processes with Computation Center, representatives of the Council of Young Scientists of the FEB RAS, as well as the management of the University’s Education and Science museum.

Areas of possible cooperation in terms of expanding interaction with countries of the Asia-Pacific region were discussed at the meeting with Deputy Vice-Rector of FEFU for International Affairs Evgeny Vlasov.

The final event in the frames of the JINR delegation’s visit to FEFU was a round table on the integration of JINR educational opportunities into the educational process of the University, where the basic functionality and objectives of the JINR Information Centre at FEFU were set. In addition to the organization of international scientific and technical cooperation, the designated range of cooperation areas in science covered accelerator technologies, theoretical physics, radiobiology, and life sciences, IT technologies. The development of joint educational and training programmes at JINR for FEFU students and young scientists was noted. In particular, prospects for organizing educational programmes and exchanging experience in training staff for the RPS project were offered.

During the visit, eleven review lectures were given to students, postgraduates, scientists of FEFU and institutes of FEB RAS. In particular, JINR staff members delivered lectures on neutron activation analysis in environmental and archaeological research, distributed computing for scientific tasks, computing for experiments at the NICA hadron collider, research conducted at JINR in the fields of radiation neurology, radionuclide and proton therapy.