On 7 November 2018, the 17th Session of the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) RSA-JINR was held in iThemba LABS (Cape town, RSA). A JINR delegation was headed by JINR Vice-Director M.G. Itkis. Chief Director of Basic Sciences and Infrastructure of the Department of Science and Technology D. Adams chaired the JCC from the RSA party.

The meeting was preceded by plenary sessions of the 5th RSA-JINR Symposium “Advances and Challenges in Physics within JINR and South Africa”, at which possible strategic prospects for development of cooperation between South African and Dubna scientists and engineers were presented.

The attention of participants of the JCC was centred around a range of topical issues of cooperation, including: presentation of the coordination structure of cooperation with JINR at the South African side, ways to increase effectiveness of summer student programmmes, preparing to holding in 2019 a regular competition for a 3-year period of joint projects, formation of a group of South African staff members at JINR, current issues of financing, and others. The Session started with reports by coordinators of relevant fields on the present state of cooperation and implementation of joint projects; the event was concluded by signing of the final protocol.

The next Session of the JCC is planned to be held in September 2019, at which a new 3-year plan is supposed to be adopted for joint projects with financing starting in January 2020.