On 14 February 2020, a regular meeting of the JINR Science and Technology Council took place in the International Conference Hall. It was chaired by Professor R. V. Jolos and started with a pleasant moment – congratulations to JINR Vice-Director Academician Boris Yurievich Sharkov on his 70th anniversary.

It was not the first time the STC considered the progress towards the implementation of the NICA project. The report of the Weekly Newspaper on the PAC for Particle Physics considered it as well in the latest issue. That is why the information presented at the meeting by V. D. Kekelidze will be reported on briefly below. The heading of the report on the present state of the NICA project informed that the project was being implemented due to the seven-year plans of JINR for 2010-2016 and 2017-2023; it gained support of the RF Government in 2016 according to the signed agreements; it was included in the Federal Project “Nauka” and was supported by 34 RFBR grants.

Plans for major objects: the accelerating complex with the booster cyclotron and the collider, the MPD and BM@N experimental facilities, the computer information complex, channels and facilities for applied innovative research, as well as the programme of scientific studies. All this is constantly adjusted in accordance with the work progress. Then, the speaker informed the STC members in detail about the progress of the development, assembling and setting up of elements of all the systems, the construction of new buildings, the creation of scientific-engineering and research infrastructure.

Speaking about participants of the project, V. D. Kekelidze noted that the programme of scientific research is being actively developed by theoreticians from numerous scientific centres of the world, coauthors of the NICA White Paper, Russian scientists in the frames of the RFBR projects, participants of established international collaborations of the BM@N, MPD and SPD experiments. Agreements with five Mexican universities (October 2019), the memorandum of participation of five Polish organizations in MPD (October 2019, NICA Days in Warsaw) were signed, the GSI-JINR agreement was activated at Winter Meetings of the Helmholtz Association in Moscow on 6 February 2020. The GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research coordinates the participation of Germany in the NICA project. The contribution of the country to the project is about 20 million euros.

The speaker also described the management and expertise structure of the project highlighting the establishment of the committee for the analysis of expenditure and implementation schedule of the project “Complex NICA”. The first meeting of it will take place on 24-26 February.

STC Chairman R. V. Jolos reminded that as a result of the previous discussion of the topic in June 2019, attention of the STC decisions is paid to the regulation of procurement procedures and work of the central procurement commission of JINR. It was also noted that the choice of contractors and suppliers is fully based on demands for reliability, quality and ability to follow the schedule. However, to ensure these conditions, to reduce the time spent on drafting and signing of agreements, it is necessary to provide professional quality of requests for procurement of scientific equipment and to provide accurate information to contractors in time.

JINR Director V. A. Matveev paid attention in his comment to the optimization of work of all the sectors engaged in procurement. He highlighted the necessity to accurately follow plans and schedules to launch the complex in time.

The report on the development of the JINR development strategy was made by B. Yu. Sharkov, a JINR Vice-Director, Coordinator of the International Working Group established in 2016 and chaired by V. A. Matveev. He noted that the strategic aim of the JINR development until 2030 as of a world-level scientific centre was to ensure its leading positions in the fields of high energy physics, nuclear physics and heavy-ion physics, neutrino physics and astrophysics, condensed matter physics, radiation biology, information technologies and high-performance computing. He also noted the importance of work conducted in the fields of interdisciplinary research and innovation technologies.

Moreover, he highlighted that there was an important aim to improve all the aspects of the activities of our science centre in addition to the development of the strategic plans for achieving leading positions in the priority scientific fields. This would include modern methods of training highly-qualified staff for the Institute and the JINR Member States basing on modern scientific and organizational management techniques of activities in the laboratories and the Institute at large. Furthermore, it is necessary to take into account the experience of the largest international centres to make JINR attractive for the talented youth and to create the necessary environment for it.

The long-term strategy of the JINR development until 2030 is our outlook on the future. It allows the scientific community of JINR make long-term plans for the development of fundamental, applied and innovative research at JINR cooperating with its partners in the Member States and other countries, taking into account the development plans coordinated by leading international scientific organizations for research in the fields of fundamental physics at a global level.

The international working group based its work on these objectives. It united world-leading experts and leaders of major scientific fields of JINR. The drafting group is finalizing the integral, balanced text. The strategic plan for the JINR development should be the basis for drafting the next seven-year plan and adoption of decisions leading JINR to new scientific achievements in a longer term. All materials are available on the website Indico.jinr.ru.

S. N. Nedelko, D. V. Peshekhonov, D. V. Naumov, I. N. Meshkov, R. V. Jolos, and V. A. Matveev took part in the discussion of the report.

AYSS Chairman A. Yu. Verkheev presented the report on the activities of the Association of Young Scientists and Specialists of JINR. He based his report on the sociological survey (2017-2018, 230 participants), a survey on scientific indicators (2017, 138 participants) and written report on AYSS grants (2017-2019).

What is the JINR youth worried about? Scientific activities, career growth, financial standing, living conditions, organization and conditions of work.

The youth is mostly satisfied with the conditions provided for conducting research and experiments, opportunities for publication of scientific works, participation in scientific conferences, seminars, projects, collaborations (including international ones), prospects for scientific development. The Institute worked out a mechanism of attaching people for passing candidate exams, dissertation council started their work, the payment amount for scientific degrees increased. However, there is a tradition in some laboratories of so-called “long” defence of candidate’s theses, and this does not help to attract graduates of Russian universities.

Since 2009, the Institute has been providing grant support to young employees. It is a significant component of retention of young qualified employees at JINR. 88% of respondents agree with it. Grants help improve scientific indicators (81% of respondents). The amount of grants has been indexed since 2014 and thus has become more than two times bigger. The speaker proposed some adjustments to the grant support system.

According to the sociological survey, most of young scientists and specialists (almost 74%) find the level of their financial standing as “average” or lower. 56% noticed a particular improvement of their financial standing (positive dynamics). A statistically valid difference is observed in the size of an average salary from the following: position (those who occupy management positions earn twice more than researchers and specialists), the gender of respondents (men earn 50% more than women do on average), working experience in the Institute (the more experience an employee has, the higher income he gets).

Considering the housing issue, the speaker noted the efforts of the Directorate to repair the dormitory at Moscovskaya str. 2. He also offered to conduct a targeted survey on housing, to establish rules to determine who may apply for compensations of renting (for example, employees who have obtained the second labour contract or who have worked at JINR for a particular period), to make the queue for employer-rented housing “transparent”, to consider other ways to support young staff members.

The AYSS Chairman believes that attracting employees and retaining talented and active staff members (especially young ones) should be given the highest priority in the Institute. In this regard, a constantly working commission for youth affairs should play a significant role in this issue.

The STC members actively participated in the discussion of the AYSS report. Some aspects of the report met ambiguous opinions. However, all the comments expressed sincere care of the Institute’s future, the growth in the number of young highly-qualified staff members on whom the implementation of scientific plans discussed at STC meetings depends. S. N. Nedelko, M. Hnatič, B. Yu. Sharkov, D. V. Peshekhonov, Yu. K. Potrebenikov, I. N. Meshkov, G. D. Shirkov, A. N. Tamonov, A. S. Sorin, R. V. Jolos commented on the report. V. A. Matveev expressed the gratitude for the informative speech and expressed the readiness of the Directorate to help in solving the problems considered in the report.

Evgeny Molchanov, JINR Weekly Newspaper