Budget execution and scientific results

On 21 March, a meeting of the JINR Finance Committee was held at the International Conference Centre, preceding the meeting of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries. A report on the results of the Institute's activities and on the execution of the JINR budget for 2023, as well as a draft updated budget of the Institute for the current year was presented to the FC members.

The participants of the meeting discussed changes in the rules for implementing JINR FC and CP procedures and were also provided with information on the preparation of the List of Officials of the Institute. The meeting was chaired by the representative of Russia in the FC Andrey Omelchuk, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

The meeting was opened by a report by JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov that presented information about the scientific achievements of the Institute, the implementation of the current Seven-Year Plan of Development for JINR, events in international scientific and technological cooperation at the Institute and the contribution of the Member States to the implementation of JINR projects.

"In general, the seven-year budget was executed satisfactorily. Almost 96% of the scheduled budget expenditure resources were efficiently utilized. These funds were invested in the development of research infrastructure and human resource capacity building and were used for the operating expenses of the Institute. Budget execution for flagship projects amounted to 97%," JINR Director estimated the financial results of the completed seven-year period.

Head of the Department of Budgetary and Economic Policy Nikolay Kalinin made a report on the execution of the JINR budget for 2023 and the draft revised budget for 2024. Based on the results of his report, the Finance Committee recommended the Committee of Plenipotentiaries to take into account the information on the execution of the JINR budget for 2023 and to approve the consolidated final adjustment of budget expenditures for 2023, as well as the updated JINR budget for 2024.

Information on the selection of an audit organization to conduct an audit of JINR's financial activities for 2023 was presented by JINR Vice-Director Lachesar Kostov. The JINR auditor for 2023 was once again LLC AK Korsakov and Partners.

The Chairman of the Working Group under the Chairman of the CP on Financial Issues of JINR Erzhan Mukhamedzhanov spoke about the results of the meeting of the Working Group in Hanoi on 15 January. The FC recommended the JINR CP to instruct Directorate of the Institute and the Working Group under the Chairman of the CP on JINR Financial Issues to develop an approach to determining the annual contributions of Member States, taking into account the annual increase in the JINR budget by 5% during the Seven-Year Plan of Development for JINR in 2024-2030 and to present their proposals for consideration at the November meetings of the JINR governing bodies.

Proposals to change the Rules of Procedure of the JINR Finance Committee were voiced in the report of the Head of the JINR Legal Department Anton Kharevich. They are scheduled to be finally considered at the JINR CP meeting on 22 March. In the second point of his speech, Anton Kharevich presented the draft List of Officials of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research that the Finance Committee recommended the Committee of Plenipotentiaries to pre-approve and instruct JINR Directorate to forward the draft List of JINR Officials to each Plenipotentiary Representative of the governments of the JINR Member States for further elaboration of the issue of approving the List of JINR Officials with the relevant bodies and departments of the JINR Member States.

At the conclusion of the meeting of the Finance Committee, Director of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics Dmitry Kazakov presented the scientific report "Waiting for new physics" to the participants.

The next meeting of the JINR Finance Committee is scheduled for November 2024.