Members of the General Assembly of the Astroparticle Physics European Consortium (APPEC) Sylvie Leray (CEA Saclay, IRFU, France) and Francesca Moglia (DESY, Hamburg, Germany) visited the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research on 18 May 2018. The meeting of the APPEC General Assembly was held the day before it, on 17 May, at the Moscow State University. JINR Vice-Director B.Yu. Sharkov represented JINR at the meeting.

The guests from APPEC got acquainted with the main projects of JINR, visited the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions and the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics.

The joint institute seminar “Applications and societal benefits of nuclear physics” was held by Sylvie Leray in FLNR. The Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee (NuPECC) published its Long Range Plan 2017 last year. It includes an overview of various fields of application and social benefits that fundamental research in nuclear physics in Europe. Sylvie Leray in her report presented domains of application of nuclear physics highlighting the latest advances, particularly, in the fields of nuclear energy, health care, nuclear safety, space, environment and material science. The seminar evoked a special interest of FLNR, FLNP and LRB representatives as far as it gave a possibility to compare the level and tasks of research conducted at JINR with those conducted by European colleagues. Sylvie Leray, who had visited JINR in 2010, noted in her turn a considerable progress of the Institute in the level of scientific research and experimental facilities as well as the level of the JINR scientific infrastructure at large.

At the JINR Directorate, the guests were welcomed by JINR Vice-Director B.Yu. Sharkov, Deputy Head of the JINR Finance and Economy Office M.P. Vasiliev, Head of the JINR International Cooperation Department D.V. Kamanin and Deputy Head of the Department A.A. Kotova. The participants of the meeting discussed possible ways of further cooperation development, in particular, the possibility of including one of the JINR flagship projects Baikal-GVD in the roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). The guests noted that the Baikal-GVD project had already attracted attention of APPEC, and members of the organization now have positive impression of it. Furthermore, according to the participants of the meeting, planned joint steps will serve for wider spread of information about research and opportunities of JINR in European countries.

The interest of the European guests to JINR, which is currently a full member of APPEC, was shown against the background of final formation of the roadmap of scientific cooperation between the Russian Federation, Germany and France, which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on further deepening of JINR integration into the scientific community of Europe. It is worth mentioning that against this positive background signing of a memorandum of understanding between JINR and France is being prepared, which was launched in February 2018 in Paris. One of the key meetings dedicated to development of the roadmap of cooperation between Russia and Germany was held on the sidelines of the meeting of the Group of Senior Official on Global Research Infrastructures (GSO) that was held in Dubna in October 2017.

Photos by Elena Puzynina