Commenting on the 129th session of the JINR Scientific Council, JINR Director Academician Grigory Trubnikov noted that the task of the event was primarily to discuss scientific updates to the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR for 2017−2023. According to the JINR Director, the draft of amendments was already approved at the session of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries of JINR in November 2020 and then underwent several iterations of discussions with experts and within the Institute’s laboratories.

“We presented an updated programme for the Institute’s development at the CP session. The programme is based on a deep analysis of the past three and a half years,” Grigory Trubnikov explains. “First and foremost, it includes the scientific and expert analysis, the budget analysis of each project, and the forecast for the implementation of each of the five key projects, as well as the Institute’s movement in three years left in this seven-year period. The forecast is very important as far as we see the balance of funds, the balance of resources, and we see how the personnel component changes in the Institute and in the projects. It is also significant because the staff is the main resource for the implementation of the projects. And we check with external circumstances. It includes such serious factors as, say, financial crises and the pandemic, which undoubtedly have a certain impact both on the implementation of our seven-year plan and the development of scientific programmes in the world. Today’s report made at the meeting of the Scientific Council was devoted to this verified version of the Seven-Year Plan for the Development, namely to its scientific part.” The JINR Director said that the final version of the Seven-Year Plan will be presented at the CP JINR session in March 2021.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Photos by Elena Puzynina

Participants of the event traditionally considered major scientific results of the Institute for 2020. The milestones of the recent meetings of the Programme Advisory Committees were also presented to the SC members. “The PACs worked in a somewhat new format, I would say. Their goal now is not only to give an expert assessment but also to set priorities for each project within the framework of the JINR Topical Plan. We are now drafting a pragmatic scientific policy in the Institute that is linked to the resources, including personnel, finance, and other opportunities,” Grigory Trubnikov noted.

The agenda of the session also included reports on the key JINR projects, namely NICA and the Superheavy Element Factory. Moreover, the draft of the programme of the JINR Centre of Radiobiology Research was first presented, which is based on the developments of the Laboratory of Radiation Biology. The Scientific Council supports JINR’s participation in the programme of events for 2021 declared as the Year of Science and Technology in the Russian Federation, as well as welcomes the decision to hold the Year of Bulgaria in JINR.

Participants of the session approved changes in the membership of the JINR Programme Advisory Committees. Thus, a new member of the PAC for Particle Physics is Wojciech Dominik (Institute of Experimental Physics of Warsaw University, Poland), and Alexander Ivanov (International Institute Laue–Langevin ILL, Grenoble, France) joined the PAC for Condensed Matter Physics.

At the suggestion of the JINR Directorate presented by Academician Grigory Trubnikov, the Scientific Council decided to confer the title “Honorary Doctor of JINR” on Professor Michael Waligórski, professor Stanislav Dubnička, and Professor Luisa Cifarelli in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the advancement of science and education of young scientists.

The Scientific Council approved the jury’s decision on awarding the annual Pontecorvo Prize for 2020 to Professor Niwa Kimio (Nagoya University, Japan) for the development of the high-resolution nuclear emulsion technique, which led to identification of the tau neutrino and direct observation of tau neutrino oscillations. Moreover, the Scientific Council approved the jury’s decision on awarding JINR annual prizes 2020 for best papers in the fields of scientific research, methodology, research and technology, and applied research.

The Council supported the proposal for naming the Laboratory of Information Technologies after M. G. Meshcheryakov. The JINR Scientific Council announced a vacancy for the position of the Director of the Laboratory of High Energy Physics. The elections will be held at the 131st session of the Scientific Council in February 2022.

The next 130th session of the JINR Scientific Council is scheduled for 23-24 September 2021.

More details about the milestones of the 129th session of the Scientific Council will be available in the upcoming issues of the JINR Weekly Newspaper.