On 9 November, a meeting of the JINR Finance Committee (FC) took place in Almaty. JINR FC Chairman and Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Andrey Omelchuk chaired the meeting. The results of the JINR FC meeting will be presented at the upcoming meeting of the Committee of Plenipotentiary Representatives of the Governments of the JINR Member States tomorrow.

Welcoming the audience, General Director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Plenipotentiary Representative of the Government of Kazakhstan in JINR Sayabek Sakhiyev touched upon one of the key aspects of the event programme – work on a new Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR. According to his speech, in 2009 it was Kazakhstan, where the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR 2010-2016 was approved, the effective strategy of which was confirmed by the Institute’s results. Sayabek Sakhiyev wished the FC members fruitful work and invited the participants of the meeting of the Committee of Plenipotentiary Representatives to a festive opening ceremony of the JINR Information Centre at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Saturday, 11 November.

JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov opened the meeting with his report on scientific work of the Institute in 2023. Academician Trubnikov spoke about the most striking results obtained in each of the seven JINR laboratories and the status of the megascience projects. Thus, the NICA Project is 88% complete. The Baikal-GVD Neutrino Telescope has received two new clusters, its volume is now 0.6 km³. In addition, specialists commissioned the experimental cluster with a new data collection system.

In his report, Grigory Trubnikov highlighted the Institute’s achievements in international cooperation development. The Institute has strengthened the strategic partnership with scientific organizations in several countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Two meetings of the bilateral coordination committees were held, at which JINR and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China, as well as the National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT), selected priority projects for joint implementation. Several meetings and events took place to strengthen cooperation between the Institute and scientific organizations in South Africa and raise the cooperation level with Brazil and India.

Head of the Budget and Economic Policy Department Nikolay Kalinin presented the preliminary financial results of the implementation of the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR 2017-2023. He reported on the JINR draft budget 2024 and approximate contributions by the JINR Member States for 2025-2027. Based on the results of the JINR FC meeting, the Institute’s budget was approved in accordance with the new expenditure structure. In addition, the budget plan for the development of JINR for 2024-2030 was also approved, including the development of the JINR scientific and experimental base, engineering and social infrastructure, as well as providing a competitive level of staff wages.

Chairman of the Work Group on Financial Issues under the Chairperson of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries of JINR Yerzhan Mukhamejanov reported on the results of the meeting of the group held on 10 July 2023.

JINR FC Members presented the results of the audit of the JINR’s financial activities in 2022 provided by the Korsakov and Partners Company and the analysis of the implementation of the action plan by the JINR Directorate according to the results of the audit of the JINR’s financial activity in 2021.

Director of the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems Evgeny Yakushev made a scientific report “Dark matter in the Universe and how do we study it?”.

The meeting was completed by a general discussion and the signing of the meeting protocol.