On 9 November, participants of the JEMS-21 training programme, which was held last week, took part in a round table “Cooperation between JINR and universities. JINR information centres, educational programmes of the JINR University Centre“. The meeting aimed for discussing possible formats of interaction and cooperation with representatives of the Joint Institute.

A significant number of participants of the current training programme were representatives of Russian universities. Thus, participants’ talks on their own goals and opportunities turned into an active discussion about systematic issues of the science-education interaction and JINR approaches. “Our goal is to inform and discuss with you how to use JINR’s educational and infrastructure resources most effectively. I am glad to see that universities are actively involved in cooperation with the Institute,” Head of the JINR International Cooperation Department Dmitry Kamanin highlighted in his opening speech.

Participants of the meeting most actively discussed the format of JINR information centres. Directors of information centres operating at the Khetagurov North Ossetian State University, Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), Vitus Bering Kamchatka State University, and the Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M. V. Lomonosov took part in the round table. They shared the operation experience of JINR Information Centres at their universities with the participants of JEMS-21. In addition, they spoke about the achieved results, new tasks and methods JINR provides to solve them. “If we use all the resources of the Institute, then a flurry of interest in science, the university, scientific and engineering specialties is guaranteed,” Director of the Infocentre based at FEFU Alexandra Reguzova noted in her comment.

The Directors of the Information Centres and university representatives highlighted online lectures by Institute employees, student training programmes, exchanges of visits, the JINR educational portal edu.jinr.ru among the effective formats of cooperation between universities and JINR. They expressed a special interest in student training programmes at the Institute, which allow students to immerse themselves in the profession of a researcher and work with a high-level scientific infrastructure. During the meeting, participants also noted that tasks of information centres include not only work with students and teaching staff of their university, but also cooperation with other educational and academic institutions aimed at developing cooperation with JINR. The representatives of the Information Centres also stressed the fact that, in addition to students, career guidance work with schoolchildren and their parents aimed at popularising the profession of a scientist, as well as with schoolteachers, is an important activity area of JINR Information Centre.

Moreover, participants discussed the issues of popularisation of scientific knowledge and the activities of the Institute. Detailed discussion of the work of Information Centres and prospects for opening new ones was continued at the second workshop of Directors of JINR Information Centres on 10 November.