From official sources

On the JINR budget for 2025

At the request of the newspaper's editorial staff, the results of the meeting of the Finance Committee were commented on by Head of the Budget and Economic Policy Department of JINR Nikolay KALININ.

The JINR budget for 2025 was approved at the session of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries of the Governments of the JINR Member States that was held on 15 November in Minsk.

The JINR budget revenues for 2025 are set at 229 million US dollars and the expenditures are set at 276.6 million US dollars. The budget has a deficit of 47.6 million US dollars that is envisaged by the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR in 2024-2030.

In accordance with the Institute's regulatory documents, the JINR budget constitutes in US dollars, while the Institute uses Russian rubles to carry out its activities, therefore, when scheduling the budget, ruble expenses are converted into US dollars at the forecast exchange rate of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia.

The draft budget was prepared on the basis of the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR in 2024-2030. To calculate its key macroeconomic parameters, the data of the Forecast of the Social and Economic Development of the Russian Federation for 2025 and the scheduling period of 2026 and 2027 were adopted (an increase in tariffs for electricity of 12%, for thermal energy, water supply and sanitation of 13%, an average annual inflation of 5% and an average annual exchange rate of 96.5 rubles per US dollar).

Budget revenues for 2025 are mainly composed of contributions from Member States that amount to US$217.7 million, an increase of 5% compared to 2024, as envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan.

In order to ensure a competitive level of remuneration for the Institute's personnel and to increase employee motivation in implementing the Institute's projects, a higher increase in the wage fund is scheduled in the 2025 budget than that envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR in 2024-2030:

• from 1 January, 2025, in order to stimulate the advanced training of researchers, the monthly additional payment for the academic degree of candidate of sciences (from 10 to 20 thousand rubles) and the additional payment for the academic degree of doctor of sciences (from 25 to 40 thousand rubles) will be increased;
• from 1 March, 2025, the salary (tariff) part of the wages of employees of the Institute's budgetary divisions will be indexed by 4% in accordance with the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR;
• from 1 April, 2025, the salary (tariff) part of the wages of employees of the Institute's budgetary divisions will be additionally increased by 10 thousand rubles in order to ensure a competitive level of remuneration for the Institute's employees, taking into account the intensive increase of wages in Russia.

Thus, the increase of the average monthly salary at JINR in 2025 is expected to be 18-20% that is higher than the predictive increase of wages in the Russian Federation.

Personnel costs in the 2025 budget amount to USD 107.4 million. It should be highlighted that about 10% of this amount constitutes the Highly Qualified Personnel Incentive Fund that will be used during 2025 to increase the motivation for the effective work of highly qualified employees and to ensure that incentive payments depend on work results.

Material costs for the implementation of scientific projects, maintenance and operation of experimental facilities, as well as infrastructure activities are scheduled for 2025 in an amount generally consistent with the Seven-Year Plan. In total, these costs amount to 133.5 million US dollars.

As compared to the Seven-Year Plan, the 2025 budget has redistributed funds towards increasing material expenditures on projects to develop a large research infrastructure and towards reducing material expenditures on projects implemented within the framework of scientific areas.

The material costs for the NICA Complex Project are scheduled at $37.5 million. They were increased by $5.5 million due to the need to extensively develop the basic configuration of the accelerator complex.

The material costs for the project "Development of the accelerator complex and experimental facilities of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (DRIBs-III)" are scheduled at 14.6 million US dollars that corresponds to the Seven-Year Plan.

The material costs for the Baikal GVD project are scheduled at US$6.8 million. They are increased by US$0.8 million as compared to the Seven-Year Plan that is mainly due to difficulties in acquiring equipment and more complex logistics chains.

In the project "Pulsed neutron source and complex of spectrometers" which 8.2 million US dollars were scheduled for, 2 million US dollars were redistributed in favor of the development of the IBR-2 research nuclear facility and spectrometers due to a reduction in expenses for the development of the pulsed fast reactor NEPTUN. The increase in expenses for the development of IBR-2 is due to the need to focus efforts and funds on development of a new fuel load for the IBR-2 reactor, the cost of which turned out to be higher than envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan.

Material costs for the Multifunctional Information and Computing Complex (MICC) project are scheduled at 5.4 million US dollars at the level of the Seven-Year Plan.

Infrastructure material costs include costs for the development of engineering and social infrastructure facilities (US$13.5 million), costs for the repair of buildings and structures (US$11.1 million), as well as administrative and business costs (US$14.2 million).

The largest projects for the development of engineering infrastructure scheduled for 2025 include the reconstruction of the checkpoint and security room at the VBLHEP site; development of the road and street infrastructure of the VBLHEP site, the reconstruction of the DLNP radiochemical laboratory and others.

Expenses for the development of social infrastructure in 2025 concern further work on the reconstruction of the Ratmino complex for its conversion into a residential complex for JINR employees, the reconstruction of the canteen at the VBLHEP site, as well as construction in the Resort Hotel "Dubna" (Alushta), carried out to improve the health and leisure conditions for the Institute's employees.

In the expenses for the repair of buildings and structures, it is possible to note further major repair of the new administrative building (14 Sovetskaya St.) to establish a museum complex of the history of JINR and the major repair of the premises on the second floor of the International Conference Centre to make a space for intellectual and cultural communication.

In the JINR budget for 2025, expenditures on international cooperation are scheduled at US$9.6 million that is US$1.3 million more than the Seven-Year Plan. These expenditures are required for strengthening scientific relations with Member States, developing cooperation with international scientific organizations and expanding the geography of the Institute's cooperation that is relevant in today's conditions.

In general, we can say that the JINR budget for 2025 is aimed at further implementation of the Institute's scientific programme for the improvement and development of experimental facilities in accordance with the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR in 2024-2030 to carry out promising scientific research at the forefront of modern physics.