On July 5, 2015 in the International Conference Hall the Roundtable «Physics at NICA» was held; this meeting was held in the frames of the JINR – RSA cooperation. This event continues the series of meetings devoted to development and implementation of the NICA project; the first Roundtable was held in 2005. The purpose of the meeting: firstly, acquaintance with the preparations for experiments at the accelerator complex NICA and their theoretical basis, and secondly, development of bilateral cooperation of the RSA and JINR. The Roundtable was attended by representatives of the largest research centers of the Republic of South Africa. Two Roundtables on cooperation with India and China were organized in Dubna last year; and this year the similar forum with scientists from Brazil was held a few weeks ago. So, on July 5, the Roundtable with South African partners completed the first stage of establishing of scientific relations with BRICS countries, but the work is not over, it has just begun, taking into account the mutual interest of scientists. The Roundtable was finished with the signing of a memorandum of cooperation and an appeal to the Ministry of Education and Science and the Department of Science and Technology of South Africa on the establishment of an affiliate program for the participation of South Africa in the NICA project.