At present the radioactive nuclear beam facilities world-wide based on the mass-separator on-line to the beams of different projectile particles are the main instruments for the nuclear structure study and solving many important problems in nuclear astrophysics. Investigations of short-lived neutron-rich and neutron-deficient nuclei far from stability give a unique possibility to test many aspects of modern nuclear theory.
      One of the most efficient and universal way for the production of a very large variety of intensive radioactive ion beams is the ISOL (Isotope-Separator On-Line) method using a high intensity proton beam of the energy about 1 GeV. The world leading ISOL facilities of this kind are ISOLDE (CERN, Switzerland) and ISAC (TRIUMF, Canada).
      In Russia the first ISOL facility IRIS (Investigation of Radioactive Isotopes at Synchrocyclotron) has been constructed in 1975 being for a long time the only ISOL installation in operation in our country. Prof. E.Ye.Berlovich took the initiative to start the IRIS construction heading the Short-lived Nuclei Laboratory in 1964-1977. Later the Laboratory was headed by G.D. Alkhazov (1978-1992), D.M. Seliverstov (1993-2002). Since 2003 V.N. Panteleev took the lead of the Laboratory.
      IRIS facility was put into operation in 1975 on-line to 1 GeV proton beam of PNPI synchrocyclotron. From the very beginning the main direction of scientific activity of the Short-Lived Nuclei Laboratory based on the IRIS facility was a study of nuclides far from stability by using different methods of nuclear spectroscopy. At the first stage, a series of experiments was carried out for detailed investigations of nuclei in exotic regions to identify new nuclides and to perform the determination of atomic masses and the drip line position for proton unstable nuclei. After 1980 extensive investigations of beta-decay strength of neutron-deficient nuclei in the rare earth region by using a total gamma absorption spectrometer were carried out. In 1983 the first experimental results were obtained on hyperfine structure and isotopic shifts using the high-sensitive laser installation at IRIS facility. The main part of an ISOL system is the ion source-target unit. Therefore the development and manufacture of high efficiency ion sources and targets is currently carried out by the IRIS target – ion source group. The scientific activity of the laboratory was not limited by investigations at the IRIS facility. Laboratory collaborated successfully with well-known nuclear centres, such as ISOLDE, CMS (CERN), GSI (Darmstadt, Germany), Universities of Marburg and Giessen (Germany), Cyclotron Laboratory of Jyvaskyla University (Finland), Neutron Research Laboratory of Uppsala University at Studsvik (Sweden) and ANL (USA)
(See Historical overview of main activities).
      At present the Short-Lived Nuclei Laboratory participates in several international projects carried out at the leading scientific centres: ISOLDE (CERN), SPES (LNL, Italy) and SPIRAL-II (GANIL, France)
(See Current Projects).