On 28 September, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research was visited by a delegation from the Sultanate of Oman headed by Khalid Al-Shuaibi, President of the National Investment and Export Development Programme and Coordinator of the Oman Vision 2040 Programme, who was on a work visit to Russia. Head of the Investment Department of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion of the Sultanate of Oman, Khadija Al-Saqtari, and Head of the Business Partnership Development Department, Jassim Al-Alalwi, also arrived at JINR. The delegation visited the NICA Complex scientific infrastructure facilities and studied the opportunities of work in radiation materials science and biomedical research. Potential areas of cooperation were discussed at the meeting with JINR representatives.

Representatives of the leadership of the research and Quantum R LLC, which is an industrial partner of the ARIADNA Collaboration on applied research at the NICA Complex, accompanied the delegation. From the JINR side, the delegation was welcomed by Alexander Sorin, VBLHEP Deputy Director, Oleg Belov, Deputy Head of the VBLHEP Department of Methodological Research and Innovation, and Igor Lensky, Head of the Innovations and Intellectual Property Department.

During the visit, members of the delegation toured the key facilities of the NICA Complex: the linear accelerator, the SOChI irradiation station, the Booster and the Nuclotron, the collider tunnel, and the MPD Detector hall. In the exhibition area of the hall a presentation of the cooperation opportunities of the ARIADNA Collaboration and Quantum R LLC in radiation modification and application of the Raflon innovative material took place. The representatives of the Omani side were particularly interested in the technologies of production and assembly of elements of the collider ring of the accelerator complex, which were described during the visit to the factory of superconducting magnets.

The programme of the visit concluded with a round table, where the parties discussed the results of the visit and outlined further steps for the development of trilateral cooperation between ARIADNA, the Omani side, and Quantum R LLC.

“We are very impressed by today’s tour and meetings, they allowed us to get a better understanding of the technologies used at JINR and identify many potential areas of cooperation. Any collaboration has to start somewhere, and we decided to start by studying the samples of the Raflon material presented,” President of the National Investment and Export Development Programme of the Sultanate of Oman, Khalid Al-Shuaibi, stressed. He also noted that student exchange programmes and personnel training are among the most important issues in the discussion of possible areas of cooperation. Mikhail Arzhakov, Chairman of the Quantum R LLC Board, expressed his hope for new scientific and technological results in radiation materials science using ion beams of the NICA Complex.