The solemn opening ceremony of the Years of Russian-Chinese Scientific, Technical and Innovation Cooperation via video conference

Footage from a video about Russian-Chinese cooperation in science, technology, and innovation shown at the opening ceremony

The Agreement between the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China and JINR is signed

JINR leaders shared their comments with the Institute’s mass media on the signing of the Agreement, which is of particular importance for both the NICA project and the Joint Institute at large.

JINR Director V. A. Matveev: “Today’s signing of the Agreement on the participation of our Joint Institute for Nuclear Research together with the People’s Republic of China in the implementation of the unique project NICA is a historic moment for us. It is important that the signing took place in the frames of the opening ceremony of the Years of Russian-Chinese Cooperation in Science, Technology, and Innovation which demonstrates the place of our flagship project NICA in the overall context of Russia-China cooperation.”

JINR Vice-Director and Leader of the NICA Project V. D. Kekelidze spoke about the current and future tasks of the NICA project with the participation of our Chinese colleagues: “The Agreement implies active participation of our Chinese colleagues in joint tasks in the frames of the NICA project, which even slightly goes beyond this project. First of all, China’s participation in the creation of electromagnetic calorimeter for our basic detector MPD is very important for us. Its scales make it impossible to implement this task by efforts of only one Institute. We are grateful to our Chinese colleagues for their response to our call, that they actively participate in the implementation. The next joint task is the development of the modern detector subsystems. We are talking about a so-called MAPS technology (Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors), which is at the forefront of detector technologies in the fields of high energy physics; it is a technology that has not been used at any operating facility yet. Moreover, Chinese colleagues will join the development of electronics for our detectors. Chinese representatives already take part in the data analysis, modelling and, of course, will be actively engaged in our analysis programmes. There can hardly be an excess of human resources and intellectual strengths; there is always a lack of these things. Therefore, we always welcome extensive involvement of some Chinese universities as participants of the NICA project. Basing on the technologies developed and used in NICA, work on some innovation projects is also planned. In particular, it regards a superconducting energy storage device which is considered the technology of the future and a breakthrough in the modern power supply industry. And finally, medical technologies are the field in which we and our Chinese colleagues are already partners, and we see great prospects for joint work.”

In his speech, JINR First Vice-Director G. V. Trubnikov noted the following, in particular: “In my opinion, signing of such an agreement has happened fairly quickly for JINR-China relation, taking into account the large scales of China as a country and of JINR as an organization with 18 Member States. Just in five years, we have achieved a high-quality leap from intentions to particular steps and actions. A significant document has been signed that actually makes China and its scientific organizations of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China, full members of the creation and further operation of the NICA project. In this regard, the most important thing, apart from the political decision, is that real organizations, real people join the project. We are very grateful to our Chinese partners, namely the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, Tsinghua University, the Institute of Modern Physics in Lanzhou, Beijing University, and, of course, employees of international departments of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China. We would not have achieved the victory, which we have documented today, without their help and their efforts. I would like to highlight the very important and ideological role of Academician Vladimir Kadyshevsky, who was one of the apologists for strengthening and developing relations with China. And of course, I wish to pay tribute to the support of our Director academician Victor Matveev who supported our initiative with China which was one of the Institute’s priorities in attracting new countries. On the Chinese side, there were also two key figures whose role must be noted. This is Professor Jiangang Li, former Director of the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei, actual Vice-President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. And another person who promoted this project and our cooperation is Cao Jianlin, the former Deputy Minister of Science and Technology of China, Director of the Institute of Laser Physics now, one of the largest institutes in Beijing. And I also thankfully mention today the role of our International Cooperation Department that put this task as its first priority. Of course, the key role in establishing direct working contacts and filling this initially political project with real science belongs to my colleagues from the Laboratory of High Energy Physics of JINR. I cannot but mention here Hamlet Georgievich Khodzhibagiyan and Viacheslav Mikhailovich Golovatyuk. Altogether, by joint efforts, we have made several significant steps on this long one-mile way at the end of which we would like to see China a full Member of JINR.”