The 5th traditional school for young scientists, which was timed to the JINR Days in Bulgaria, was held on 15 – 18 May 2012 in Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria).

Unlike at previous schools, beside Bulgarian participants students from Romania and Greece attended the school, and this gave an international status to the event. The school was opened by Deputy Plenipotentiary of the Government of Bulgaria to JINR Lachezar Kostov; students and lecturers were warmly welcomed by Director of the BAN Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy Dimitr Tonev. Lectures on the major JINR directions of scientific research and projects were given by Vladimir Kuzmin (Laboratory of Theoretical Physics), Andrey Popeko (Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions), Oleg Rogachev and Anatoly Sidorin (VBLHEP), Georgi Shelkov (Laboratory of Nuclear Problems). The importance of such schools can’t be underestimated – 7 Bulgarian students already participate in the development of the MPD detector. During the school an agreement about a visit of 10 Bulgarian students to Dubna for participation in the NICA project at the beginning of the next year was achieved.