MERIDIANS of cooperation

Belarus - JINR: strengthening long-term partnership

On 17 September, a round table was held at the JINR Scientists' Centre with the participation of representatives of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Issues of expanding cooperation with organizations subordinate to the NAS of Belarus were discussed at the meeting, including joining the Institute's mega-science projects collaborations, applied research and development, as well as participation in the JINR educational programme.

The delegation included the Chief Scientific Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vasily Gursky, Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Technological Sciences, responsible from the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for contacts with JINR Sergey Shcherbakov, Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science Alexander Shumilin, General Director of the State Scientific and Production Association "Optics, Optics and Electronics, Laser Technology" Maksim Bogdanovich and Senior Specialist of the NAS of Belarus Olga Grigorieva.

At the meeting, JINR was represented by JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov, JINR Vice-Director and responsible for JINR contacts with the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Kekelidze, Scientific Secretary of the Institute Sergey Nedelko, Directors of JINR Laboratories: Sergey Sidorchuk (FLNR), Egor Lychagin (FLNP), Evgeny Yakushev (DLNP); Head of the Colliding Beam Physics Division of VBLHEP Dmitry Peshekhonov, Head of Sector of the Detection Systems, Processing and Analysis of Physical Data of DLNP, Head of the National Group of the Republic of Belarus in JINR Yury Kulchitsky.

On the eve of the round table, within the framework of the visit to JINR, the delegation of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus visited FLNP and DLNP, the Superheavy Element Factory and the nanocentre in FLNR, the NICA accelerator complex and the factory of superconducting magnets in VBLHEP. Working meetings were held with the representatives of Directorates of VBLHEP, FLNP and DLNP JINR. "In the process of communication in the laboratories, points of contact and new interests are found literally right away. We have identified a whole range of areas in almost every laboratory in which we can expand our cooperation," Vasily Gursky commented on the course of the visit.

In his welcoming speech, Grigory Trubnikov emphasized that Belarus is one of the Institute's significant long-term partners in almost all major JINR projects, including the flagship NICA project. Belarusian scientists are involved in research at the IBR-2 reactor, at CERN, at NICA and in calculations at the Laboratory of Information Technologies. "It is gratifying that during the round table we can expand the possibilities of our cooperation," JINR Vice-Director Vladimir Kekelidze said.

At the meeting, the representatives of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus indicated that the use of the potential of the scientific infrastructure of JINR will allow organizations subordinate to the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus to significantly expand the range of investigations in the field of medicine, biology and archaeological artifacts. Chief Scientific Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vasily Gursky highlighted long-term cooperation in the field of manufacturing of science-intensive equipment, research in materials science and in other areas.

"This visit gives us an opportunity to develop further steps in a more meaningful way. We need to draw up a roadmap for the development of our cooperation, which we will consolidate the developed areas in. We aim to strengthen and expand the participation of academic organizations in JINR," Vasily Gursky emphasized.

Alexander Shumilin reported that a priority research programme for the next five years currently develops in the Republic of Belarus and the inclusion of joint projects with JINR in it is of interest to both parties.

The round table considered proposals on joining scientific organizations of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus to the Baikal-GVD project and their participation in the development of the medical proton cyclotron MSC-230. In addition, the possibilities of cooperation in the production of optical fiber, microelectronics and software development, as well as analysis of experimental data were discussed. Development of JINR computing supercomputer clusters in organizations of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus was also highlighted as a possible area of joint work.

The participation of Belarusian schoolchildren and teachers in JINR educational programmes and the possibility of exchanging specialists in narrow areas between the Belarusian nuclear institute "JIPNR - Sosny" and FLNP were discussed. Seminars for Belarusian colleagues will be held at DLNP and FLNR to specify new areas of cooperation that are currently developed.

At the end of the meeting, the Belarusian party invited the JINR delegation to visit organizations subordinate to the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus on 13 November, ahead of the session of the Committee of Plenipotentiary Representatives that will be held on 15-16 November in Minsk.

JINR Press Office