From 28 June to 1 July 2025, a meeting of the Scientific Council of the Physics Division on Heavy Ion Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), entitled “Relativistic nuclear physics and heavy ion physics”, took place in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The participants discussed the results and prospects of research in nuclear physics, superheavy element synthesis, and plans for the implementation of major scientific projects and the construction of the required infrastructure. Alongside the meeting, Saint Petersburg State University and the Institute signed an agreement to establish a joint scientific and educational laboratory.

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The event’s four-day programme included more than 30 talks on projects and studies in heavy ion physics. The participants of the Scientific Council were more than 80 scientists from JINR, the RAS Institute for Nuclear Research, the RAS Institute of Applied Physics, the RAS Institute for Analytical Instrumentation, the Rosatom State Corporation (the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, Electrochempribor Plant, the Efremov Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus), the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics of Moscow State University, Saint Petersburg State University, the Research Institute of Biology of Yerevan State University, Kurchatov Institute, and the National Centre for Physics and Mathematics.

RAS Council Chair, Scientific Leader of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Academician Yuri Oganessian gave an opening speech. He noted this is the fifth meeting of the Council in this composition. The meetings take place annually in the format of conferences. The participants summarise the year’s results since the previous meeting and discuss research planned for the short term (one to two years) and in the long term (up to five years). The Council’s meetings cover a wide range of tasks that require constant discussion and involve many researchers from Dubna, Moscow, and other cities in the Leningrad, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Sverdlovsk, and Ulyanovsk Regions of Russia, as well as from the Rosatom scientific departments. The synthesis of superheavy elements is just one of the topics of discussion at the RAS Council. In addition, the meeting covers a wide range of other issues that require a comprehensive approach, such as atomic and relativistic physics, light and neutron-rich nuclei. Special attention will be paid to the study of the physical and chemical properties of superheavy elements.

In his plenary talk entitled “Heavy ions in science and technology”, Academician Oganessian presented the event’s programme and discussed the past, present, and future of research in the physics and chemistry of superheavy elements. JINR Vice-Director, Academician Vladimir Kekelidze spoke about the development of the physics programme at the NICA Accelerator Complex. In March 2025, the first technological run was initiated at NICA. At the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics, work is underway to prepare the accelerator complex for beam injection into the collider. The Joint Institute’s Vice-Director presented the results of the work of the MPD, BM@N, and SPD International Collaborations, with an emphasis on the applied research programme at NICA. The ARIADNA Collaboration participants are preparing to conduct new experiments at the SOCHI and SIMBO Irradiation Stations.

The presentation by Scientific Leader of the Laboratory of Information Technologies Vladimir Korenkov was devoted to digital technologies and data mining in large scientific projects.

JINR Scientific Leader, Academician Victor Matveev gave a talk entitled “Quark colour – a step towards understanding the properties of nuclear matter (on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the hypothesis of coloured quarks)”.

Starting with the second day, the event was held in the format of six thematic sessions:

• superheavy nuclei;
• an atom in a supercritical field;
• SHE physics and chemistry: experiment and theory;
• light exotic nuclei;
• applied research;
• accelerator and target technologies.

On 29 June, Nikita Kovrizhnykh, Galina Knyazheva, Evgeny Yakushev, Alexandr Svirikhin, and Dmitry Solovyov gave talks on the research of superheavy nuclei and the development of experimental facilities at the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at JINR.

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On the last day of the meeting, JINR Director, Academician Grigory Trubnikov chaired a section dedicated to reviewing the progress of the JINR main facilities in nuclear physics, including the NICA Accelerator Complex at VBLHEP and the FLNR cyclotron complexes.

Yuri Oganessian stressed that the Joint Institute has a wide range of facilities operating at both medium and high energies, which makes it possible to effectively solve various nuclear physics problems. “This “crossroad” works very well. In particular, neutron-rich nuclei could be created using NICA’s Booster, where the energy is 10-20 times higher than in the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, where specialists are studying these nuclei,” Yuri Oganessian said.

Academician Oganessian thanked the Council members for their contribution to the common cause and noted that the international situation in recent years has brought attention to the value of collaboration between scientists and leaders in heavy ion physics, which has developed in Russia. “We always aim for the main result, and this allows us to be at the forefront of science, which is attractive to the younger generation of scientists. All this creates a powerful potential and strength of the country,” Yuri Oganessian summed up.

At the end of the meeting, Grigory Trubnikov noted that the expanded format of the event allowed the Council members to get acquainted with detailed reports on all scientific areas and hold detailed discussions.

The JINR Director invited the audience to participate in the 29th International Particle Accelerators Conference RuPAC’25, which will take place in Saint Petersburg this September. “We have something to share and something to discuss. This year, we expect the launch of the NICA Collider at VBLHEP and the new DC-140 Cyclotron at FLNR. Next year should be no less fruitful: a new fourth-generation SKIF Synchrotron should be launched in Novosibirsk, and a mass separator unique by world standards will be launched in Sarov,” Grigory Trubnikov said.

Honorary Scientific Director of the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (Sarov), Academician Radiy Ilkaev commented on the results of the Council, supporting Yuri Oganessian’s idea of conducting a series of experiments at the NICA Complex with energy significantly higher than that of the FLNR cyclotrons. One of the proposed experiments is to test the possibility of the helium-12 nuclei’s existence. In addition, Academician Ilkaev noted that for these purposes, in the future it is necessary to consider creating a specialised accelerator, the intensity of which will be ten times higher than that of NICA’s Booster.

JINR Director’s Special Representative for Cooperation with International and Russian Scientific Organization, Academician Boris Sharkov highlighted that two main facilites of the Joint Institute – the NICA Collider and the cyclotron complex at the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions – were included in the passport of the future federal programme on fundamental properties of matter in the Flagship Projects area and will receive additional support during the six years of programme implementation. “From the point of view of the people who prepared this project, it is very important for these two projects to have a clear development programme. Our meeting once again confirmed that these projects and, consequently, our programmes have bright prospects,” Academician Sharkov said.

A VBLHEP JINR chief researcher, Academician Igor Meshkov suggested dedicating a special issue of one of the Joint Institute’s periodicals to the materials of the meeting. Other participants supported the proposal: selected proceedings of the RAS Council meeting will be published in one of the next issues of JINR’s online peer-reviewed journal, Natural Science Review.

On 30 June, at the meeting of the RAS Council, Saint Petersburg State University and the Institute signed an agreement to establish a joint scientific and educational laboratory. The aim of the laboratory is to solve problems in information technology in high energy physics and train qualified personnel. The document was signed by JINR Vice-Director, RAS Academician Vladimir Kekelidze and Vice-Rector for Research at Saint Petersburg State University Sergey Mikushev. The agreement provides for cooperation between the Meshcheryakov Laboratory of Information Technologies at JINR and the Lyapunov Research laboratory of Saint Petersburg State University.

The research activities of the Scientific and Educational Laboratory include the development of new methods of storing, structuring, and processing data, highly efficient algorithms for solving complex problems, and decision support systems that can function with incomplete and fuzzy data as part of the experimental tasks of the NICA Accelerator Complex. In addition, senior IT students in will study at the scientific and educational laboratory.