Image: IAEA Imagebank [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Flickr
Researchers linked to Joint Institute for Nuclear Research warn of impact on science
European countries are freezing or even terminating their involvement with the international Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia in response to its host country’s invasion of Ukraine. Researchers linked to the JINR worry that the moves will lead to project delays and hamper scientific progress.
“I sincerely hope that it will not happen and politicians will recognise that science should bring nations together to answer fundamental questions and solve the problems in front of humankind,” said Richard Lednický, a former JINR vice-director who is currently chief researcher of the Laboratory of High Energy Physics in Dubna, where the JINR is also based.
Founded by 11 countries in 1956, the JINR is involved in both theoretical and experimental physics research. According to its website, it has 19 member states that have contributed to its budget including Russia and Ukraine, the scientists of which receive special status at its facilities. Russia contributes about 80 per cent of the budget.
Countries taking action
Because of the invasion, some members have paused their involvement in the JINR’s activities, which commentators say should be easy to reverse.
Bulgaria’s science ministry told Research Professional News that the country had stopped payments and participation until Russia’s military actions cease. “We do hope that the war will end soon,” it said.
The Slovak Republic said it notified the JINR in May that it was freezing research activities, but said it was “monitoring and evaluating the situation constantly and will take appropriate measures in case it will be deemed necessary”.
Other countries intend to formally withdraw, and this is expected to be tougher to reverse. “After withdrawing from JINR, it will be very hard to join again,” said Krzysztof Rusek, a physicist at the University of Warsaw and a former member of the JINR’s Scientific Council. “This is a long and difficult process.”
‘No potential for cooperation’
The Czech Republic’s government and parliament have approved a complete withdrawal, which is now awaiting the president’s sign-off. Former and current members of the JINR’s Scientific Council said Poland also intends to withdraw, although the Polish government did not respond to requests for comment.
Czech officials have said that their country’s withdrawal is meant to stifle Russia’s science and technology development, and show that the Czech Republic denounces Russia’s actions.
Václav Velčovský, a deputy minister at the Czech education ministry, said Russia was “threatening the entire world”, including his country. “There’s no potential to cooperate in science and technology with a country that provokes military aggression,” he said.
Velčovský added that Czech researchers working at the JINR could “redirect their interests” and “find even better opportunities” to continue projects at other organisations in nuclear research, such as Europe’s organisation for nuclear research, Cern.
Home organisations would “accept them back”, he said, whereas any Czech citizens staying on Russian territory were doing so “on their own responsibility and with the knowledge that the Czech Republic will not be able to provide them with help”.
Losses feared
The JINR did not respond to a request for comment, but researchers linked to it said that withdrawing from it would negatively affect the participating country’s research. Lednický said a Czech withdrawal from the JINR would “harm Czech science a lot [while] having a minor effect on JINR capabilities”.
Ivan Wilhelm, a physicist at Charles University in the Czech capital Prague and an appointed member of the JINR’s Scientific Council who has stopped participating in its activities, supports the Czech Republic’s withdrawal because of the invasion. But he said direct visits to the JINR would not be possible for a “relatively long time period”, which would mean some projects would have to be redefined, with some specialists being replaced, or that projects would have to be stopped if that was not possible.
Some Polish researchers hope that joint research will continue despite Poland’s expected withdrawal. Michael Waligórski, a retired physicist and member of the JINR’s Scientific Council who stopped attending meetings in February, said that a withdrawal would be “confronted with individual contacts and joint research which we wish to continue despite our clear and unequivocal moral judgement of the Russian invasion”.
A version of this article also appeared in Research Europe