On 18 August 2025, a Joint Workshop on the Physics of Strong Interacting Systems started in Almaty (Kazakhstan), organized by the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ITP CAS) with the participation of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of Kazakhstan. The event gathered more than 100 researchers representing BLTP, FLNR, and MLIT JINR, along with scientific centres of China, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The 13th workshop will last until 22 August.

In his opening remarks, Organizing Committee Chair, BLTP JINR Deputy Director for Scientific Work Nikolay Antonenko noted that the conference scales up each year, and the scientific programme becomes more and more diverse. He made a brief digression into the history of the JINR Member State and the city chosen to host the event this year. “I am sure that this meeting will strengthen our cooperation and allow the participants to discuss many topics of mutual interest,” Nikolay Antonenko said.

Director General of the Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan, Plenipotentiary of the Government of Kazakhstan at JINR Sayabek Sakhiyev presented an overview of the INP activities. In his speech, he noted the successful cooperation between the INP and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in a number of key projects.

This year, the range of the topics is extremely wide. The workshop’s scientific programme includes more than 70 presentations. In their talks, the scientists will highlight the following research areas:

• complete fusion reactions leading to the formation of superheavy nuclei;
• quasifission and transfer-type reactions, production of exotic nuclei;
• shape and K-isomers in the heaviest nuclei;
• the synthesis of unknown isotopes;
• the cluster approach to nuclear fission;
• complex emission from strong excited nuclei;
• studying the structure of nuclei using modern microscopical methods;
• the equation of the state of isospin asymmetric nuclear matter;
• decays of exotic nuclei;
• the applications of nuclear physics;
• lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD);
• QCD phase diagram;
• the search for dark matter and new particles in hadron reactions and lepton-antilepton interactions;
• the production of QED bound states in fixed-target experiments and in lepton colliders.

This event is designed to unite the efforts of theorists and experimentalists in nuclear physics to solve current scientific problems and create new collaborations. Since 2010, the annual workshop on the physics of strong interacting systems has been a unique platform for exchanging expertise and strengthening ties between scientists, making a significant contribution to international cooperation, especially between JINR laboratories and research groups from China.