At the Technoprom-2022 forum

On 23-24 August, Novosibirsk hosted the IX International Forum of Technological Development Technoprom-2022, a landmark event in Science and Technology Decade in Russia.

JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov spoke at the plenary session, highlighting the significance of maintaining and developing the international scientific and technical cooperation: "Here we have great opportunities for cooperation. India, China, South Africa, Brazil that are present at our forum today, are colossally strong technological and scientific partners. We should cooperate with these and many other countries in a mutually beneficial dialogue."

On 24 August, JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov spoke at several sessions of the Technoprom Forum 2022 in Novosibirsk. Thus, under the Forum's topic "Nuclear technologies and megascience projects", a session entitled "Unique scientific facilities of the megascience class - drivers of science, human potential, and technology transfer development" was held. Academician Trubnikov spoke about the NICA accelerator complex, its goals, stages and implementation dates, detailing project management and applications.

Grigory Trubnikov informed that the NICA complex will allow parallel implementation of scientific programme both in the field of basic research and in the field of applied research - the latter is being carried out already at the extracted beams from the Nuclotron. The largest applied projects at NICA are the creation of new materials in collaboration with the Kurchatov Institute, the Budker INP SB RAS, and other scientific centres of the Russian Academy of Sciences; work on the disposal of radioactive wastes, new safe energy sources, and space medicine.

"We have already launched the first several MeV/nucleon channel for testing encapsulated microelectronics for Roscosmos, and by the end of 2022, we plan to introduce a dedicated channel with energies up to 600 MeV/nucleon in the whole range from protons to heavy ions, which will test electronics for Roscosmos and the European Space Agency," Grigory Trubnikov said.

"By the end of 2023, we are going to obtain a circulating beam in the collider and begin testing. At the same time, the stage format of the NICA complex construction and its cascade type allow us to engage in experimental physics even before the collider is put into operation. The first experiments are already underway at the superconducting booster ring, which was launched in 2020," commented Academician Trubnikov, presenting the project's implementation status. He noted that two research detectors of the complex are also planned for operation: MPD in 2024 and SPD in 2027.

Together with Geliymash, Gazprom, and other organizations, JINR is building a helium plant, one of the most cutting edge. The plant will be designed to produce, store, and transport pure gases - helium, hydrogen, oxygen, neon, xenon and nitrogen - in a liquefied state.

JINR is also working with NIIEFA on a medical proton cyclotron, which will use technology developed for NICA: a unique superconducting cable operating at liquid helium temperature and giving currents up to 15 kA.

Grigory Trubnikov emphasised that such a large-scale project as the NICA accelerator complex requires international expertise and a project management system. "Each experiment, i.e. MPD, SPD, BM@N, the collider itself, have 2-3 international expert committees: Machine Advisory Committee, Detector Advisory Committee, Scientific Committee. There are representatives from all the world's leading centres in them: from the USA, CERN, China, Latin America, European centres," he explained. Each committee meets at least once a year during the NICA construction process, and conducts a thorough and independent expertise. Academician Trubnikov noted that great attention is being paid to training personnel for NICA. The project is now actively involving countries located in Latin America, Africa, South Asia, and the Mediterranean region. Over the past five years, around 400 new participants have joined the project.

On 23-24 August, the 4th International Meeting of the BRICS Working Group on Research Infrastructure and Megascience Projects took place within the framework of the Technoprom-2022 Forum being held in Novosibirsk this week. The Joint Institute was an active participant of the event. The two-day meeting brought together representatives of ministries, relevant departments, and scientific organizations of the BRICS countries to discuss the Strategic Plan for the Working Group, which was the key topic of the event.

JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov chaired the topical session devoted to update of BRICS countries' policy on research infrastructure. Participants discussed the need for open dialogue between the countries for the benefit of the research infrastructure development. Traditionally, participants of BRICS international meetings exchange the state of the art and scientific plans of the association's members. "Our countries are developing very actively, that is why it is important to synchronise the general vision of scientific policy," he highlighted. "Such an international dialogue has resulted in the launch of the BRICS GRAIN platform, the development of tools and methods by the association's countries, thanks to which research infrastructures of the BRICS members have become even more open, attractive, and competitive."

Within the framework of the topical session devoted to the Strategic Plan of the BRICS Working Group, Head of the JINR International Cooperation Department Dmitry Kamanin presented its draft. In his presentation, he noted that the Document is able to boost the cooperation development between research infrastructures of the BRICS members. This will support initiatives within the countries, contribute to the creation of new actively developing research facilities, and attract the world scientific community to the research infrastructure of BRICS. The presentation of the Document aroused an active discussion, at which participants of the working meeting made many proposals for the elaboration of the Plan. In particular, they discussed a smooth increase in the number of participants of joint applied projects, which all BRICS countries will gradually be able to join.

"We already can begin the discussion now in order to start implementing such a project next year," Grigory Trubnikov said, supporting the initiative of colleagues. He highlighted that such initiatives confirm the intentions of the BRICS countries to create a joint research infrastructure platform.

Moreover, on the first day of the event, participants discussed the milestones of previous meetings of the BRICS Working Group. In particular, they drew attention to the role of the special online meeting of the strategic group held in March 2021.

On the second day of the Meeting, the Working Group discussed ways to improve the BRICS GRAIN web platform. In fact, the discussion continued the main topic of the Meeting, i.e. the elaboration of the Strategic Plan's draft. On behalf of the Joint Institute, Chief Scientific Secretary Sergey Nedelko spoke on the topic of the Meeting and presented the aims of the platform, as well as offered participants to discuss a number of proposals for the BRICS GRAIN development. "It is important that infrastructure objects of the platform complement and balance each other. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account national interests of each Member of the BRICS Association," Sergey Nedelko stressed.

Within the framework of the following topical session, its participants discussed the BRICS Task Force project, which was included in the Strategic Plan and aimed to analyse existing research infrastructure objects of the BRICS Members. Dmitry Kamanin presented the project, milestones of its development, and further plans for its implementation.

It should be reminded that the BRICS Working Group on Research Infrastructure and Megascience Projects was established on the initiative of the Russian part and officially registered on 8 October 2016 at the 4th BRICS Science, Technology, and Innovation Ministerial Meeting and recorded in the Jaipur Declaration.