On 22 November, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Gennady Krasnikov visited the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. The RAS delegation included Vice Presidents of the Academy Vladislav Panchenko and Stepan Kalmykov. During the visit, the RAS representatives discussed cooperation issues with the Joint Institute Directorate and toured two of the largest JINR scientific infrastructure facilities: the NICA Accelerator Complex, including the Synchrophasotron hall, the MPD Detector pavilion at VBLHEP, and the Superheavy Element Factory at FLNR. In addition, they got acquainted with plans of large–scale physical experiments at these facilities.

At a meeting at the Institute’s Directorate, JINR Director, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Trubnikov told Gennady Krasnikov about the progress of the JINR megascience projects, the NICA Accelerator Complex and the Baikal-GVD Neutrino Telescope. In particular, a full-fledged physics session at NICA is planned in the second half of next year, and a session on extracted beams will begin even earlier as part of the applied research of the ARIADNA Collaboration. “This infrastructure should work day and night. I urge you to engage us in more tasks of the Academy,” Grigory Trubnikov emphasised. The residence country is the key Member State of the Institute, which, in turn, has many partnerships with the RAS scientific organizations, the JINR Director stressed.

During the visit, the parties discussed the opportunity to create a federal programme for the study of the basic properties of matter, the organization of a large IT infrastructure uniting various scientific centres, and issues of support and retention of scientific employees.

Gennady Krasnikov noted that the RAS has always been a pillar of the country and will continue working towards achieving national goals. The RAS President noted that the draft of a large scientific programme on space research involving many academic institutions is now almost ready.

JINR Scientific Leader, Academician-Secretary of the RAS Physical Sciences Division Victor Matveev added that international cooperation is JINR’s highest value and noted that even amid challenging political circumstances, it is unacceptable to switch to isolationism. “In fact, we cooperate with the world scientific community of physicists. Our work is now attracting more and more attention in not only Member States, but also other countries,” Victor Matveev said.

The meeting at the Institute’s Directorate was attended by JINR Vice Director, RAS Corresponding Member Vladimir Kekelidze, Special Representative of the JINR Director for Cooperation with International and Russian Scientific Organizations, RAS Academician Boris Sharkov, Director of the Laboratory of Information Technologies at JINR Sergey Shmatov, and International Cooperation Advisor to the Director of the Institute Irek Suleymanov.