New membership of JINR STC: priority tasks

The meeting of the JINR Science and Technology Council was held on 19 May at the JINR International Conference Centre. This was the first meeting of the Council in a new membership that is re-elected every five years. The STC included JINR Director and Vice-Directors, Scientific Leaders, Chief Scientific Secretary and Chief Engineer of JINR, Directors and Scientific Leaders of the Laboratories, Director of the University Centre, Chairman of the Council of Young Scientists and Specialists, Chairman of the Council of Leaders of National Groups of the JINR Member States. There are 53 people in total. Elena Kolganova became the Chairman of the JINR STC and Alexander Verkheev became its Scientific Secretary.

First of all, JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov expressed his gratitude to the new STC members and laboratories for delegating such a staff. He noted the long, fruitful activity of Rostislav Jolos as Chairman of the Council, expressed gratitude to the members of the STC of the previous membership: V.Aksenov, A.Balagurov, V.Voronov, M.Gnatich, M.Itkis, A.Popeko, N.Rusakovich, I.Savin, A.Sorin, E.Strokovsky.

"On the whole, the Institute is up to the mark," Grigory Trubnikov noted, "not one of the most essential indicators of the Institute's "health" has a negative trend. The contributions of the JINR Member States are obtained, the budget of the Institute is filled in such a way that the next nine months will implement the plans. On 10-11 July, Irkutsk will host a meeting of the Working Group on financial matters of JINR under the Chairman of the CP JINR. We expect delegations from seven countries to arrive in person. The main issue to be discussed is the budget for the next seven-year period."

Starting from 15 June, the sessions of the Programme Advisory Committees will begin, the agenda will be busy - each PAC will have to listen to a dozen projects, inspect them, assign priority and make recommendations. At present, a large part of the Topical Plan is currently reviewed, regrouped, so that the next seven-year period can be entered with an improved structure.

The international life of the Institute extensively develops. In May, a large number of conferences were held in different countries. In the near future, the first visit of the JINR delegation to Mexico will take place. Negotiations with China on the development of a cooperation agreement are expected in mid-July. Egyptian students have practice in Dubna. And the summer promises to be active in terms of practices and schools, a large number of conferences are expected.

An urgent task, highlighted by Grigory Trubnikov, is intensifying international cooperation in terms of representation of employees from the JINR Member States. It is necessary to restore pre-Covid indicators - about five hundred people that is approximately 30-40% of the total number of scientists and 10-12% of the total number of JINR staff members. We need to return to these figures, this is the main indicator of the international status of the Institute.

Elena Kolganova continued the meeting with a report on the organizational issues of the STC work. Norbert Kucerka was elected Deputy Chairman of the JINR STC.

The second part of the report concerned the areas of the Council's work. Before the meeting, E.Kolganova asked all members of the STC to make their proposals - what issues are most important for discussion at the meetings. One of these issues is the development of a strategy for the timely implementation of the main projects of the Institute. Today, there are risks of the Institute's deficit budget, risks concerning the timely obtaining of equipment, the provision of qualified personnel.

Finding ways to address personnel issues is one of the most crucial tasks of the Institute and the next group of proposals is precisely related to personnel policy. It is proposed to discuss the work strategy of the JINR University Center, the work of dissertation councils, the Association of Young Scientists and Specialists, as well as the Regulations on election to positions.

And the third proposal that was made at the previous meeting of the STC is to expand the opportunities for feedback between staff members of the scientific and technical sector and administrative structures.

"According to the JINR Charter, the STC is an advisory body under the Directorate of the Institute and is meant to ensure the participation of the Institute's scientists in the organization of research activities," E.Kolganova reminded. "That is, the work of the STC consists of two parts: the issues that JINR Director poses to the STC and the issues that the STC formulates on its own, waiting for some action from JINR Directorate. In this sense, the STC may well be the mechanism through which the Laboratory will influence the activities of the Directorate and administrative staff. The initiative group represented by Georgy Shelkov and Yevgeny Yakushev proposes to create a STC committee to prepare this issue."

This proposal sparked a lengthy discussion. Some of the speakers believed that the current mechanisms and procedures for appealing to superiors were sufficient to address such issues. Others tried to support the initiative group. R.Jolos, S.Dmitriev, V.Aksenov, S.Nedelko, D.Naumov, S.Shmatov, E.Syresin, D.Peshekhonov, V.Rozhkov, E.Mukhamedzhanov and others took part in the discussion.

It was decided to give the "green light" to such a committee so that it would start working and to draw up a list of problematic issues. In parallel, it was decided to approve the membership of the committee and the so-called "statement of work" in order to determine how to act, to report and what should be considered the result of its activities.

Galina MYALKOVSKAYA