Youth and science

Megascience is a magnet of intellect:
JINR at the Youth Forum

On 25 August, within the framework of the VII All-Russian Youth Scientific Forum "Science of the Future - Science of the Youth", a plenary meeting "Megascience - a Magnet of Intellect" was held, one of the speakers of which was JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov. The participants of the event discussed the tasks of megascience projects, examined the unique facilities of this class, operating and being constructed in Russia.

Answering the moderator's question about the need for megascience projects, JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov emphasized their fundamental importance for applied research. He gave several examples of applied tasks that are already being solved or will be solved at the NICA complex that is under development. So, for instance, all Russian complexes for liquefying natural gas use the technologies that were once developed by JINR specialists for the collider. He talked also about space medicine and space expeditions that are impossible without studying the impact of heavy ions on biological objects that will also be decided at the NICA complex in Dubna. Another applied area of research at NICA will be the irradiation of microelectronic components for satellites launched by the Roscosmos State Corporation, the European Space Agency and NASA.

The decisive role of international cooperation in megascience projects was emphasized. "A large-scale facility with a large budget for breakthrough fundamental research, in the development of which at least ten countries are involved, this is what a project of this class represents. No country is able to possess technologies at a level sufficient to bring such a large-scale and science-intensive project to life," Grigory Trubnikov said. He illustrated this thesis with the mega-science "NICA Complex" project in Dubna that involves about 1000 employees from 20 countries. Over the six years of development of the complex, the project has increased by about 500 new researchers. "Megascience projects are colossal magnets of intelligence. For a country that convinced the world scientific community to develop such a large-scale facility on its territory, the main value of such a project is not even in the scientific result and possible discoveries, but in the intelligence attracted to this location. I think that the Dubna project will bring about 2-3 thousand talented people to Russia," the director of the international organization emphasized.

Together with Grigory Trubnikov, the speakers of the meeting were representatives of leading scientific organizations implementing megascience projects. The meeting was moderated by Dmitry Ivanov, Chairman of the Program Committee of the Forum "Science of the Future - Science of the Youth".

Materials prepared by the JINR Press Centre