On 20 April 2017, the international training course for scientific and administrative personnel “JINR Expertise for Member States and Partner Countries”, the participants of which were 11 chief executives and specialists in the sphere of nuclear sciences and related disciplines, came to an end.

The training involved getting acquainted with JINR principles of organization, scientific and educational programmes of the Institute, with the user policy of the IBR-2 reactor and other means of participating in the activities of the Institute on various levels. During the period of four days, the participants became familiar with the scientific infrastructure of the Institute, attended lectures of leading scientists and the Directorate of JINR Laboratories and visited some historic sites. The training programme also included the lectures on the history of JINR, Dubna and the culture of the country of residence – Russia. The last day of the training, 21 April, was dedicated to the development of scientific contacts of the participants and ended with a sightseeing tour around the town.

On 20 April, a round-table meeting with the JINR Directorate was held in the Director’s office, which culminated with a festive ceremony of awarding the certificates to the participants of the training. The exchange of views revealed that the days spent at JINR had generated the most positive impressions and that the new information about the Institute had proved to be useful for further cooperation development with colleagues from Dubna. The participants shared their thoughts on the subject with the representatives of the “Dubna: science, community, progress” newspaper.

As a result of work, carried out by the delegation of the Arab Atomic Energy Agency during the training, ideas for development of cooperation between JINR and AAEA took form of the protocol №1 to the Memorandum of understanding. A memo was signed with the representative of the government of the Republic of Zambia, who was a guest of our Institute during the visit of the governmental delegation at the beginning of 2017.

This training was one of the ways to respond to the growing practical interest of a broad spectrum of the scientific community towards creating a closer relationship with JINR. Thus, in connection with the celebration of the 60th anniversary of JINR a range of events were held with the same purpose, for instance, the Forums «Frontiers in Nuclear, Elementary Particle and Condensed Matter Physics» with India and «Frontiers in Elementary Particle, Nuclear and Condensed Matter Physics» with Brazil, the visit of professors from the Czech Republic and the Republic of South Africa as well as “JINR Days” in Member States. The number of delegations of different ranks, which have paid the Institute short-term visits over the last years, has also significantly increased.

The next training will be taking place from 19 to 23 June according to the same programme. The first applications have already been received.

Photos by Elena Puzynina