On 28 October, the 19th regular meeting of the RSA-JINR Joint Coordination Committee started in the video conference format. The JINR party was headed by Deputy Chief Scientific Secretary of the Institute Dmitry Kamanin. Co-chairman on behalf of the RSA party was Daniel Adams, Acting Deputy-Director General for Research Development and Support at the Department of Science and Innovation of the Government of the RSA.

FLNR Deputy Scientific Leader Mikhail Itkis made a report on the topical issues of the Institute’s development. UC Director Stanislav Pakuliak told the audience about a recently launched JINR distant educational programme INTEREST. At the end of discussions, the parties expressed a common opinion that this programme is a promising platform for the development of bilateral cooperation in the educational field and in the post-coronavirus time. At the same time, the parties noted the importance of resuming regular work after the normalization of the epidemiological situation. Dmitry Kamanin presented proposals on the launch of strategic cooperation projects developed together with partners from the RSA. These projects relate to the RSA’s participation in the NICA/SPD collaboration, technological issues of cooperation in the fields of heavy ion accelerators, the regional cloud infrastructure on the DIRAC platform for the SKA project, underground laboratories and the construction of the future neutron source IBR-3.

The parties discussed the results of a regular competition for joint projects, coordination of the cooperation, the creation of a group of South African scientists at the Institute. Coordinator of the RSA group in JINR Arnoux Rossouw working at FLNR shared his experience. The parties paid special attention to the discussion of a series of joint events for the next year that will mark the 65th anniversary of JINR and the 15th anniversary of the RSA-JINR cooperation. In particular, participants discussed holding the 6th regular RSA-JINR Symposium “Advances and Challenges in Physics by JINR and South Africa” in summer 2021 at the Institute’s site.

Due to the large number of topical issues requiring discussion in the committee format, the parties noted the necessity to hold one more session that will take place in the near future.