Current and coming activities of the RIKEN/BNL Research Center in NP

Since it was founded in 1997, the RIKEN/BNL Research Center (RBRC) has been at the forefront of many key areas of high-energy nuclear physics, from lattice QCD calculations to nuclear theory to experiment. Over more than two decades, the RBRC has hosted influential workshops, been an intellectual center to visiting researchers, established joint appointments with universities, and has produced many nuclear physics faculty worldwide. The RBRC is as active today as it has always been, with a major focus on RHIC and its heavy-ion and spin physics programs. This talk will describe highlights of current RBRC activities, with an emphasis on the efforts, theoretical, experimental, and computational, in support of the upcoming sPHENIX scientific program. Possible directions beyond sPHENIX will also be described.