The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) is an international intergovernmental organization located in Dubna, not far from Moscow, was established within the framework of the Convention signed by the Plenipotentiaries of the governments of the Member States in March 1956 in Moscow.

    The Joint Institute was created in order to unify the intellectual and material potential of Member States to study the fundamental properties of matter.

    The JINR Charter was adopted in 1956 , the new edition of the Charter was readopted in 1992.

    In accordance with the Charter, the Institute's activity is realized on the basis of its openness, mutually beneficial and equal cooperation for all interested parties to participate in research.

    The aim of the Institute is

to carry out theoretical and experimental investigations on adopted scientific topics;

to organize the exchange of scientists in carrying out research, of ideas and information by publishing scientific papers, by organizing conferences, symposia etc;

to promote the development of intellectual and professional capabilities of scientific personnel;

to maintain contacts with other national and international scientific organizations and institutions to ensure the stable and mutually beneficial cooperation;

to use the results of investigations of applied character to provide supplementary financial sources for fundamental research by implementing them into industrial, medical and technological developments.

    The results of investigations carried out at the Institute can be used solely for peaceful purposes for the benefit of mankind.

    JINR is now a large multi-branch international scientific centre with activities incorporating fundamental research of the structure of matter, development and application of high technologies, and university education in the relevant fields.

    The participation at the Institute can be realized in different forms: on the basis of membership, bilateral and multilateral agreements to perform separate scientific programs. JINR Member States contribute financially to the Institute's activity and have equal rights in its management.

    JINR has at present 18 Member States:

Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Bulgaria Cuba Czech Republic Georgia Kazakhstan D.P.Republic of Korea

Moldova Mongolia Poland Romania Russian Federation Slovak Republic Ukraine Uzbekistan Vietnam

    JINR has special agreements concluded with:

Germany in the field of theoretical physics, heavy ion physics and condensed matter physics, high energy physics;

Hungary in the field of condensed matter physics.

Italy in the field of nuclear physics.

    Scientific Partners of JINR

    JINR has bilateral agreements with international organizations:

UNESCO	United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,
CERN	European Organisation for Nuclear Research,
ICTP	International Centre for Theoretical Physics.

    JINR has bilateral agreements, protocols and other documents concluded with 712 institutions in 57 countries, including:

IHEP (Protvino), Russian Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute", ITEP, INP (Moscow), INP (St.Petersburg), BINP (Novosibirsk) and other research centres in Russia;

BNL, LLNL, FNAL and other research centres in USA;

IN2P3 (France) in the field of nuclear and particle physics;

C.E.A (France) in the field of radionuclide metrology;

Hungary KFKI in the field of condensed matter physics.

    Governing Bodies

    The Committee of Plenipotentiary Representatives (CPR) of the governments of the Member States is the supreme body governing the Institute.

    The Scientific Council and Finance Committee realize their activities annually under control of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries pursuant to the adopted Regulations.

    In line with the new principles of the JINR Charter, the membership of the Scientific Council was renewed in March 1999. It consists now of:

- 18 appointed members from the Member States;
- 25 members elected by CPR: eminent and well-known scientists Member States, CERN, CLAF, Germany, France, Italy, USA;
- director of JINR.

    The Scientific Council:

a) evaluates the results of the scientific activities of the Institute,
b) draws conclusions on the plans of scientific research of the Institute, submitted by its Director and on the reports on execution of such plans,
c) makes an expert examination of the proposals of the Director on the development of new scientific programs and projects,
d) works out recommendations o n the improvement of the scientific activities of the Institute,
e) defines its own rules and procedures and submits them for approval to the Committee of Plenipotentiaries,
f) sends its decisions and recommendations on the considered issues to the Chairman of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries,
g) the Scientific Council holds its sessions at least two times a year.

    Programme Advisory Committees

    The Programme Advisory Committees (PACs) are advisory bodies of the JINR Directorate and to the JINR Scientific Council in specific fields of research.

    The PACs:

- consider proposals for experimental projects of JINR, at JINR facilities as well as at facilities of other research laboratories;
- review the progress of on-going projects;
- review projects for the development and upgrading of the JINR facilities.

The JINR Scientific Council established PACs for:

Particle Physics; Nuclear Physics; Condensed Matter Physics.

    The structure of JINR

is determined by scientific specialization. JINR has 8 Laboratories and University Centre:

BLTP	- Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics,
VBLHEP	- Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics,
DLNP	- Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems,
FLNR	- Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions,
FLNP	- Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics,
LIT	- Laboratory of Information Technologies,
LRB	- Laboratory of Radiation Biology,
UC	- University Centre.

    Besides, a number of associate Experimental Physics workshops are also parts of the Institute.

    The total number of JINR Personnel is about 4000. Approximately 1100 scientists work at the Institute, among them 10 Academicians and 8 Corresponding Members.

    The permanent administrative body is the JINR Directorate responsible for all research, financial, administrative and social activities on the basis of the CPR's decisions and recommendations, existing agreements and adopted responsibilities.

    Members of the JINR DIRECTORATE:

V.A. Matveev	- Director;
M.G. Itkis	- Vice-Director;
	- Vice-Director;
Alexander S. Sorin	- Chief Scientific Secretary;
Boris N. Gikal	- Chief Engineer;
D.I. Kazakov	- Director of BLTP;
V.D. Kekelidze	- Director of VBLHEP;
V.A. Bednyakov	- Director of DLNP;
S.N. Dmitriev	- Director of FLNR;
V.N. Shvetsov	- Director of FLNP;
V.V. Korenkov	- Director of LIT;
E.A. Krasavin	- Director of LRB;
S.Z. Pakuliak	- Director of UC.

    The main fields of the Institute's research are:

- theoretical physics,
- elementary particle physics,
- relativistic nuclear physics,
- heavy ion physics;
- low and intermediate energy physics;
- nuclear physics with neutrons;
- condensed matter physics;
- radiation biology and radiobiological research;
- networking, computing and computational physics;
- educational programme.

    The principal facilities of the Institute for experimental investigations are:

- Nuclotron
- U-400, U-400M and U-200 heavy ions cyclotrons;
- IBR-2 pulsed reactor with neutron ;
-Phasotron
- computer centre.

    IBR-2 is a reactor with the average power of 2 MW. The pulse power is 1500 MW, pulse duration is 215 microseconds, the frequency of pulse repetition is 5 per second, pulse density of the neutron flux is 10¹⁶n/cm²/s.

    U-200 is an isochronous cyclotron to accelerate heavy ions. It is designed to accelerate nuclei with (A/Z)=2.8-5 up to 145Z²/A MeV with the beam intensity 10⁸ - 10⁹ ion/s.

    U-400 is a heavy ion isochronous cyclotron. The range of accelerated nuclei is (A/Z)=4-20, energy is 650 Z²/A MeV, beam intensity is 10¹² - 10¹⁴ ion/s.

    U-400M is an isochronous cyclotron to accelerate heavy ions. It is designed to operate in the cyclotron U-400+U-400M complex and allows to accelerate ions from hydrogen up to uranium in the range of energy 120 - 20 MeV per nucleon correspondingly with the average beam intensity of 4 10¹³ - 10¹¹ ion/s.

    Nuclotron is a new super conducting accelerator. It will permit to perform a wide program of research in relativistic nuclear physics. The injection complex is being developed consisting of a buster, linac and ion sources. This complex will allow one to accelerate nuclei from hydrogen to uranium with the intensity from 10¹³ to 10⁸ particles per pulse and the energy of 6-7 GeV per nucleon. Polarized deutron beams are foreseen.

    Phasotron is an accelerator of 680 MeV protons. 10 beam channels are available at this machine which are used to carry out experiments with pions, muons, neutrons and protons. 5 beam channels are designed to carry out medical investigations. The intensity of the extracted proton beam is 2 mkA.

    NEW BASIC FACILITIES

    New basic facilities to carry out investigations able to compete in future with other first class accelerator centers are under consideration.

    IREN project

    IREN is the project of the Intense Resonance Neutron Source aimed to the creation of the high flux pulsed neutron source to carry out investigations with resonance neutrons. The facility will comprise a modern 150 MeV electron linac and a sub critical uranium booster having the neutron multiplication coefficient of 14.

    DRIBS project

    DRIBS is Dubna Radioactive Ion Beams facility oriented for generation and acceleration of secondary radioactive beams.

    NICA project

    NICA Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAсility is a new accelerator complex designed at the JINR to study properties of dense baryonic matter.

    Networking, Information and Computing Infrastructure

    In view of its wide scope of research, as well as the world-wide collaboration, JINR is intensively developing its networking, information and computing centre. JINR's Central Complex for Information and Computing support at LIT and powerful net of servers, workstations and PC - farms allow carrying out numerical simulations of complicated multifactor problems of nuclear and particle physics, creating modern computational tools for data processing and data analysis. All computer units in JINR are integrated into the local internal net and the world computer nets.

    INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

    BROAD INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION is one of the most important principles of the JINR activity. Almost all investigations are carried out in a close collaboration with JINR Member States' scientific centers as well as international and national institutions and laboratories in the world.

    JINR scientists are carrying out experiments at the IHEP 70 GeV proton synchrotron (Serpukhov, Russia) with the use of such set-ups as HYPERON, Excharm, Neutrino Detector, and others.

    A fruitful scientific cooperation is under way with CERN, especially in the last few years, as well as with many physics laboratories in USA, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and other countries. Dubna specialists participate in the experiments performed at the CERN and USA accelerators: LEP, SPS, and Tevatron. New detectors for LHC (CERN) are being designing.

    EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME

    JINR gradually changes now from a purely scientific research institution to an international centre, where fundamental science, engineering and applied researches are closely connected with training.

    Structurally, it takes the form of a new satellite "students" laboratory. Its prototype is the currently operating University Centre (UC). This new training function of JINR is supposed to be oriented to international demand. The teaching is in Russian and in English, and the curricula will be properly adapted to most common education systems. The Institute's Laboratories will be a good basis for the students' initial research. It is expedient to have student exchange for practical work abroad, especially for CIS students.

    International University "DUBNA".

    On the initiative of the JINR Directorate and with active support of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Moscow Region and Dubna administrations, the "Dubna" International University for Nature, Society and Man was established in Dubna, the first students entering it in 1994.

    THE UNIVERSITY CENTRE TODAY

    The UC students come from many institutes and universities of Russia, the former Soviet Union, and JINR Member States. Students of the 4th and 5th years are invited to study at the UC for two years.
The students complete here their university education. Classes include not only ordinary courses in physics, but also intensive courses on subjects defined on the basis of JINR research.
The UC offers the following full-time graduate programmes:

o Nuclear Physics
o Particle Physics
o Condensed Matter Physics
o Technical Physics
o Radiobiology

    In the first three fields, the UC also offers the full-time theoretical physics programmes.

    The full-time educational programme of the University Centre is two years long, though it has also become a practice to accept students for shorter periods, such as one or two-month intense courses on some selected topic. The working language for foreign students is English. Post-graduate students are also admitted to attend lectures on selected topics and take part in scientific research at the JINR Laboratories. Students have wide access to the laboratories of JINR and can work with scientists and staff of the Institute, as well as to study under professors who are eminent in their fields. Graduate and post-graduate studies at the UC are based immediately on JINR's research conducted at a wide variety of world-renowned facilities, for example, heavy ion accelerators U-200 and U-400, ion beam from the U-400M cyclotron, the nuclotron - a superconducting accelerator of relativistic nuclei, and the IBR-2 pulsed reactor (which is especially fruitful in condensed matter research).

    The UC has a post-graduate training license from the State Committee of Higher Education of Russia. The UC offers the following post-graduate programmes:

* Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics
* High Energy Physics
* Solid State Physics
* Theoretical Physics
* Charged Particle Beam Physics and Accelerator Techniques
* Physics Experiment Techniques, Instrument Physics, and Physics Research Automation
* Radiobiology
* Computational Mathematics
* Mathematical and Software Support of Computers, Computational Complexes, and Networks
* Computer Facilities, Mathematical Modeling, and Mathematical Methods in Scientific Research

    There is an intent to further develop the UC as an international university for natural sciences. As a unique educational centre, it combines the strength and experience of a world-renown scientific community with those of respected Moscow universities. This successful combination would be enhanced by addition of a respected European or American University to further develop the UC, bringing the balance between the arts and humanities on one side and the sciences on the other. With such a consortium, the potentialities for joint studies and dialog between science and humanities, as well as between peoples of the former Soviet Union, Europe, and America, are endless. In addition, the UC is envisioned as a centre for training personnel for the physics institutes of the former Soviet Union republics and for wider JINR international collaboration.

    CONCLUSION

    JINR is a bridge between East and West.

    JINR occupies practically the same intellectual space as was before the decay of the socialist system in Europe.

    JINR continues to be an active international research centre of world importance.

    JINR does bring nations together!