On the eve of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, on 25 March 2026, a session of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries of the Governments of the JINR Member States took place at the International Conference Centre. The CP members approved the positions of the Institute’s Vice-Directors, Chief Scientific Secretary, and Chief Engineer of the Institute, as well as new members of the JINR Scientific Council. An important result was the decision to form a working group to prepare proposals on updating the Charter of the international intergovernmental organization.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Just before the CP session, on 24 March, Dubna hosted a meeting of the JINR Finance Committee. Head of the JINR Budget and Economic Policy Department Nikolay Kalinin discussed the Institute’s 2025 budget execution. JINR Vice-Director Latchesar Kostov gave a talk on the selection of an audit organization, and Deputy Dead of the Acceleration Division of the the Laboratory of High Energy Physics at JINR Anatoly Sidorin made a presentation on the relativistic nuclear physics research programme at the NICA Accelerator Complex.

“Over the past six months, JINR has managed to expand cooperation with a number of countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. We are implementing joint scientific projects with China and developing partnership with Vietnam and Egypt. Serbia confirmed its interest in cooperation. Russia fulfils all its obligations under the approved Seven-Year Plan for the Development of the Institute in 2024-2030 and will provide comprehensive support to JINR, including financing, staffing, and creating conditions for the participation of teams of specialists form Russia and other countries in world-class projects”, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, JINR Finance Committee Chair Andrey Omelchuk noted at the end of the meeting.

The session of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries started with a presentation on the activities of the Joint Institute by JINR Director, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Trubnikov. In the first part of his talk, he provided an overview of the key achievements of JINR laboratories:

• The Laboratory of High Energy Physics: significant progress was made in preparing for the commissioning the NICA Сomplex, including stable beam circulation in the collider and reaching design field parameters in the magnet of the Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD). Specialists are successfully conducting physics studies using extracted beams (the BM@N Experiment);
• The Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions: active preparations are underway for the most important experiments on the synthesis of the elements 119 and 120 of Mendeleev’s Periodic Table. The final stage of the creation of the new DC-140 Accelerator Complex for applied research was completed;
• The Laboratory of Nuclear Problems: significant progress was achieved in the development of the deep underwater Baikal-GVD Neutrino Telescope and the creation of the promising MSC-230 Medical Superconducting Cyclotron;
• The Laboratory of Theoretical Physics: significant results were obtained in nuclear theory and fundamental interaction theory studies;
• The Laboratory of Neutron Physics: after modernisation, the HRFD, FSD, and EPSILON facilities at the IBR-2 Reactor were successfully commissioned, and the effective implementation of the international user programme continues;
• The Laboratory of Information Technologies: the laboratory supports the high performance of the JINR Multifunctional Information and Computing Complex (MICC). The capacities of the Govorun Supercomputer and the Tier-1 Grid Centre were increased, and machine learning algorithms for data processing were successfully applied in BM@N, MPD, Baikal-GVD, and other projects;
• The Laboratory of Radiation Biology: a research programme in space and medical radiobiology is being successfully implemented in close cooperation with the relevant centres of JINR Member States.

The Director of the Joint Institute highlighted the active educational and enlightening activities of the JINR University Centre. There is a consistently high interest in personnel training programmes, which have great potential for expanding the Institute’s partner network worldwide.

In the second part of the talk, Grigory Trubnikov focused on JINR’s scientific and diplomatic mission. In recent years, the Institute’s Directorate held hundreds of high-level meetings, from negotiations with the directors of the world’s largest scientific centres to government delegations.

“JINR’s research programme unites dozens of countries despite any difficulties, because science is first and foremost for all of us”, Grigory Trubnikov emphasised. “Today, in order to stay a modern and competitive scientific centre, our Institute must not only strengthen its fundamental studies, the results of which contribute to the development of the economy and human capital, but also continuously develop international cooperation by creating new projects and formats of interaction with partners”.

After hearing the information from the Directorate and a presentation by Head of JINR Legal Department Anton Kharevich, the Committee of Plenipotentiaries approved the initiative to update the JINR Charter. It was decided to establish a high-level Working Group, which will include authorised representatives of the Governments of the Institute’s Member States.

On the recommendation of the JINR Director, the CP members approved the positions of Vladimir Kekelidze, Latchesar Kostov, Elena Kolganova, and Sergey Kulikov as Vice-Directors, Sergey Nedelko as the Chief Scientific Secretary, and Boris Gikal as the JINR Chief Engineer.

While discussing finances, the CP members approved the minutes of the Finance Committee, the final 2025 budget adjustment, and the audit plan.

As a result of the meeting, Director of the Department of Science and Innovation of the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Atomic Energy Maxim Zdorovets and Deputy Director for Scientific Work at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan Mannab Tashmetov became members of the JINR Scientific Council.

After hearing and discussing a talk by JINR Chief Scientific Secretary Sergey Nedelko, the Committee approved the Directorate’s proposal to establish the 70 Years of JINR anniversary medal.

In addition, the CP members supported the initiative to further develop the project for the creation of an International Science and Technology Park in Dubna, presented by the JINR Director’s Special Representative for the science city Sergey Kulikov. The last topic of the programme was a presentation by a chief researcher at the Sergey Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology (IIET RAS), cosmonaut Yuri Baturin entitled “JINR: a map of opportunities, streets of knowledge, and scientific coherence of the team”.

A ceremony took place to award Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Chen Hesheng the JINR Honorary Doctor’s robe and diploma.

“The Committee of Plenipotentiaries session showed all of us that JINR looks to the future with confidence. The Institute’s development strategy is clear. Now the Member States are to support it with comprehensive action plan and their own initiatives at the national level”, Chair of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries Arsen Khvedelidze said. “Staying loyal to fundamental research, JINR is actively developing applied areas that bring practical benefits to people. I thank the Institute’s Directorate for the outstanding results and wish the renewed leadership success in implementing all their plans”.

The session of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries finished with a general discussion and the final protocol signing. The next JINR CP session will take place on 6–7 November 2026 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The JINR Finance Committee meeting will take place on 5 November.