On 3 April 2019, the meeting of the Russian Federation-China working group on implementation of the NICA mega-science project was held in Dubna. The meeting was co-chaired by Dr. Yuntao Song, Deputy Director of the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Prof. V. D. Kekelidze, JINR Vice-Director and Leader of the Nica project.

At the beginning of the meeting, V. D. Kekelidze gave a short overview of the present state of the NICA project and the structure of the BM@N and MPD collaborations established in 2018 with considerable participation of Chinese specialists, including in the leading bodies of the collaborations.

Having considered the earlier affirmed list of 8 joint projects for implementation in 2019-2021, the working group selected four projects of primary importance. Their financing is planned to be launched in 2019. One of these projects is the creation of the electromagnetic calorimeter for the MPD detector.

A day earlier, in Moscow, a representative delegation of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China participated in the XI meeting of the working group for high technologies and innovations of the Russian-Chinese subcommission for scientific and technological cooperation. Participants of the meeting considered a possibility of signing an Agreement between JINR and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China on participation of the Chinese party in implementation of the NICA project. A draft of this Agreement was prepared at the meeting of the working group in Dubna. It is expected that it will be signed in May 2019 after all necessary reconciliation procedures will be completed.