2 June marks a state holiday of the Republic of Italy, an Associate Member of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. On this date in 1946, the institutional referendum was held, as a result of which Italy ceased to be a monarchy and switched to a republican form of government.

The scientific cooperation between scientists of Italy and Dubna is strong: contacts with Italian physicists have been supported since the moment of the Institute’s establishment. The name of the famous physicist, Academician Bruno Pontecorvo may be considered as a peculiar symbol of JINR-Italy ties. Being an Italian by birth who lived most of his life in Russia and worked successfully in Dubna, he was honored to receive the Lenin Prize in 1963 for experimental and theoretical studies of neutrino physics and weak interactions. Joint Dubna-Italian research in this field is still underway now.

Nowadays, in addition to a number of joint research on the CERN and GSI basis, the OPERA and BOREXINO projects unite Dubna and Italian scientists. The projects focus on the search for neutrino oscillations and studies of their parameters. As participants of the GERDA collaboration, Dubna and Italian specialists conduct measurements of solar neutrino fluxes in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory. The Frascati National Laboratory cooperates with Dubna in the fields of modern mathematical physics within the agreement with the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). https://www.enea.it/enThe Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) cooperates with JINR in the fields of neutron nuclear physics. Several years ago, the memorandum of understanding between JINR and the European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT, Italy) was signed. It aims to ensure targeted and structured scientific activity in the world scientific community.

In 2021, Italian scientists visited JINR, as well as took part in the International Round Table on Applied Research and Innovations @ NICA in September. The leading Italian university Sapienza, just like JINR, has contributed to the organization of the VII International Conference “Modern Trends in Physics” (MTP-2021) that took place in Baku.

In July 2021, the 70-ton superconducting magnet for the NICA collider was moved to the yoke of the MPD detector. These were Italian specialists from the ASG Superconductors company who produced the solenoid.

And, finally, INFN along with JINR and other large-scale scientific organizations are the organizers of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD 2022).

In 2022, scientists from Italy are taking part in 27 topics in almost all the major areas of the JINR Topical Plan. They include the DIAS-TH Dubna International School “Supersymmetry and Integrability”, the NICA complex creation and participation in committees of the megascience project, development of the accelerator complex and experimental facilities of FLNR (DRIBs-III), development of the IREN pulsed resonance neutron source and its experimental base, study of space substance on Earth and near space.

The Directorate of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research congratulates Italian colleagues and partners, as well as their relatives, on the national holiday and wishes them good health, happiness, well-being, luck, and new professional successes for the benefits of science and progress.