Two meetings of the JINR national groups chaired by Wladislaw Chmielowski took place in a video conference format in the Institute with a ten-day difference, we may say simultaneously.

On 20 November, Head of the JINR Operational Headquarters G. D. Shirkov reported on work of the Headquarters. First of all, he noted that the second wave of incidence of the coronavirus among Institute’s employees significantly exceeds the first one, so in this regard, the JINR Directorate and the Operational Headquarters had to take additional measures to fight the infection. Secondly, he listed the measures that should ensure a reduction of incidence among the Institute’s staff members. Yu. V. Maslov, O. Culicov, E. D. Uglov, V. P. Nikolaev, W. Badawy, V. Chudoba, M. Hnatič, K. Khramko, and other participants of the event discussed information of the Headquarters. V. Chmielowski thanked the reporter and colleagues for constructive discussions.

The second issue on the agenda of the meeting was the preparation for the celebration of the 65th Institute’s anniversary. Head of the JINR International Cooperation Department D. V. Kamanin introduced to participants of the event the progress in preparation for the jubilee events. Czech journalist Jan Machonin spoke about the work on the creation of the modular mobile exhibition for demonstration in the JINR Member States, the concept and the content of web-pages promoting the JINR activities, the development of cooperation with scientific centres of the world, and the brightest aspects of the life of the JINR international team. D. V. Kamanin and W. Chmielowski highly evaluated the work done by Jan Machonin.

The plan of preparation for the jubilee of the Institute was discussed by W. Chmielowski, A. Issadykov, V. Chudoba, W. Badawy. P. Fiziev told the audience about the preparation to the JINR jubilee in Bulgaria. Consultant at the Directorate of JINR I. E. Leonovich made proposals for the development of the international cultural programme.

On 1 December, participants discussed the housing of the staff to the youth dormitory at 2, Moskovskaya street. JINR Vice-Director R. Lednický spoke about the housing into the object after repairs scheduled for the beginning of March 2021. JINR Chief Engineer B. N. Gikal supplemented his speech: the construction is mostly ready. E. A. Kolganova and A. A. Brun said that there are no problems with the engineering issues of the building’s readiness.

Moreover, participants of this meeting considered the improvement of living and working conditions of employees from the JINR Member States in Dubna. It was previously discussed on 15 June 2020. Our Newspaper published a fairly detailed material about it three days after it, on 18 June. And the last but not the least date of discussions was when members of a specially created working group presented to participants of the meeting three ways to solve the problems indicated by employees from the Member States. Each problem was related to a particular activity field: information about JINR in the Member States, the procedure of leaving a country for work at JINR, checkpoints, working places, research facilities, canteens, relations with other employees, salary, advanced training, the use of grants, accommodation, institutions for children, medical care, pension insurance and taxes, cultural life and sports, etc. This information was presented by M. Hnatič, W. Chmielowski, V. Chudoba, and their colleagues with the help of heads of JINR departments responsible for solving these issues, namely the HR Office, the Visit Centre, the H&RC M Office, the AS Office, the Transport Department. Participants of the discussion proposed to publish the results presented by the working group.

Commenting on the results of the meeting, Head of the International Cooperation Department D. V. Kamanin paid special attention to the training of the scientific youth at the Institute, the development of contacts with universities of the Member States, the creation of information centres at regional universities to which the Directorate, the Laboratories’ Directors and the UC have been paying special attention lately.

Professor Gh. Stratan made proposals for the plan of the 65th JINR anniversary celebrations. In particular, he noted that the Institute needs a flag, a logo, its own motto. It may be, for example, a famous slogan “Science bringing nations together”. It would be great to design logos for each laboratory as well.

The discussion of the preparations for the jubilee will continue on 17 December. It is planned to hold a meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation for the 65th anniversary in the framework of the Directorate meeting.

Evgeny Molchanov, JINR Weekly Newspaper