Dear colleagues, collaborators and veterans and youth of the Institute, our friends from the JINR Member States and partners in leading scientific centres of the world!

On 26 March, we celebrate the 61st anniversary of foundation of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, our home on the banks of the Volga. On this day, we look back noting the big distance covered by the JINR international staff, and set objectives for the future. A wide range of research in the fields of particle physics, nuclear physics and condensed matter physics has been performed in Dubna, as well as scientific personnel of higher qualification for the JINR Member States has been trained. Excellent conditions for training of talented young specialists were provided.

We have successfully started implementation of the tasks of the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR in 2017 – 2023. In the frames of the Agreement between Russia and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, the first tranche of funds for the implementation of the NICA project was received, so for now not the total amount of financial support, but the effectiveness of our actions is becoming important. We have strong enough support and today it is necessary to focus on how resources are being invested in priorities. The international recognition of the discovery of the new superheavy elements by JINR is very important for us. On 2 March, many of our colleagues from abroad, representatives of the Russian Government, the Russian Academy of Sciences, ministries and departments came to the RAS Central Club of Scientists in Moscow where the inauguration ceremony was held… We have good reasons to look into the future with optimism because our Institute is developing at the right pace and it is able to contribute to science significantly.

Dear colleagues! On behalf of the JINR Directorate I heartily congratulate you on the JINR Foundation Day! Due to your selfless creative efforts, our Institute has become one of the largest centers of the world science and international scientific cooperation, a symbol of rapprochement of nations in the process of joint scientific research. I wish you good health, every success in your scientific research and industrial work, and happiness in your personal life.

JINR Director, Academician Victor Matveev