On 15-16 September 2021, JINR jointly with the Polytechnic Museum organized and held a meeting “Mediation: Practice of Interaction with a Visitor, Scientific Communication”. Representatives of more than 30 science and technology museums of Russia gathered in Dubna.

Participants came from different cities of our country – from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. There were staff members of the Museum of Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, Moscow Planetarium, State Biology Museum named after K. A. Timiryazev, ITMO University`s Museum of Optics (St. Petersburg), Museum of Geology, Oil and Gas (Khanty-Mansiysk), A.V. Zhirmunsky National Scientific Centre of Marine Biology (Vladivostok), etc.

The educational programme of the event, proposed by the Polytechnic Museum, included lectures on the topics “Scientific Communication. What for?”, “Museum as Scientific Communicator”, “Mediation in Scientific Way”, the project “Public Programme Production Cycle”, as well as several creative sections. The lectures and sessions of the sections were held at the JINR Scientists` Club, so that the site itself allowed deep immersion in the atmosphere of scientific search. Deputy JINR Chief Scientific Secretary Otilia Culicov made a welcoming speech. On the JINR side, the DLNP researcher Mark Shirchenko and DLNP Deputy Director Dmitry Naumov shared their successful experience in popularising scientific achievements. “The key feature of a science and technology museum is that its focus is not on the exhibits, but on science itself. The exhibits illustrate the topic,” Mark Shirchenko underlined. The lectures of the JINR staff members aroused genuine interest and lively discussion.

The JINR Museum and University Centre organized an interesting and rich cultural and educational programme; in particular, participants visited the Museum of History of Science and Technology of JINR, an interactive exhibition “JINR Main Facilities” in the JINR Cultural Centre “Mir”, the Superheavy Elements Factory, and the Medico-Technical Complex at the first research facility of Dubna, now called the Phasotron.

On the initiative of the organizers, a round table was also held at which JINR staff members shared their broad experience in scientific communication and popularisation; in particular, Deputy Director of the JINR Museum Anastasia Zlotnikova, Head of the UC Social Communication Group Anastasia Suschevich, and Senior Librarian of the Blokhintsev Library of JINR Maria Klimova made reports. Nikita Sidorov (VBLHEP JINR) presented an original project of the JINR Expocentre. Participants of the meeting worked in groups and proposed creative popularisation tools that can be successfully applied at the Joint Institute.

At the end of the two-day meeting, all participants expressed their gratitude to the Joint Institute and its departments for hospitality and an opportunity to get acquainted with the unique developments of Big Science.

There was also an idea to make this kind of meetings at JINR annual.