On 12 – 13 February 2019, the 29th regular meeting of the Joint Committee on Cooperation of the National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics of France (IN2P3) and JINR was held in Dubna.

The French party at the meeting was represented by IN2P3 Director Reynald Pain, Scientific Directors Patrice Verdier, Fanny Farget, Jean Luc Biarrotte, Volker Beckmann as well as Head of the IN2P3 International Cooperation Office Thomas Palychata. The JINR delegation was headed by Director V.A. Matveev.

The meeting started with the exchange of actual information on scientific priorities and the status of scientific projects implemented by the parties. Leaders of the JINR Laboratories presented short reports on the current state of the Factory of superheavy elements, the progress of the implementation of the NICA project and research on neutrino physics. Participants discussed the planned scientific exchange in the frames of 20 joint projects for the next year. It was noted that in comparison with the previous year a number of expected visits of French specialists to Dubna has significantly increased thanks to the planned joint experiments in the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in general. The meeting of the Committee was concluded by signing of several agreements formalizing the conduct of joint work of this laboratory with IN2P3.

At the end of the meeting of the Coordination Committee, the French delegation visited the Factory of superheavy elements of FLNR. The separator for spectrometry of superheavy elements SHELS, which was assembled by the French high-tech company SigmaPhi, evoked special interest among the guests. In the Laboratory of High Energy Physics, the French delegation observed the constructed objects of the NICA collider and the Factory of superconducting magnets.

After the visit, IN2P3 Director Reynald Pain said, in particular: “The progress achieved in the development of the accelerating basis of JINR in two years after the previous meeting of the Committee in Dubna greatly impressed. Today, we visited the construction site of the NICA complex and we were impressed by the volume of work underway. Nowadays, we actively cooperate with the Joint Institute in the fields of nuclear physics, hadron physics as well as search for new superheavy elements, and we are planning to enhance the cooperation in these areas. Particularly, we are planning to establish the student exchange with JINR. Moreover, we have signed three agreements today, two of which are aimed at the development of the accelerating equipment and technologies, and the third one covers the fields of superheavy elements. These agreements will provide an opportunity to increase the existing interaction with JINR.”

IN2P3 Scientific Director Fanny Farget who supervisors the cooperation with FLNR JINR noted in her comments: “We have been cooperating with JINR for several decades, and today, we have an opportunity to enrich our scientific achievements thanks to the Factory of superheavy elements, an outstanding experimental facility acknowledged worldwide. Working here, our specialists have obtained experience and results of a decisive importance for our scientific programme on nuclear physics. We are proud of this cooperation.”

Photos by Igor Lapenko (Scientific Information Department)