A delegation of leading scientists of the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics headed by VBLHEP Deputy Director Professor A.S.Vodopianov stayed in Pretoria and Cape Town from 18 to 27 October 2011 on an official visit.

The programme of the visit included meeting at the Department of science and technology (Pretoria), meeting with Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences of the University of Pretoria Professor Anton Ströh and leaders of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (Cape Town). The programme also included presentations of reports of members of the delegation which were devoted to establishment of the accelerator complex NUCLOTRON/NICA at iThemba LABS, where representatives of the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch were also invited.

The major objective of the visit was attraction of attention of a broad community of RSA scientists, engineers and managers to realization of the NICA/MPD project at JINR. Discussions of the results of the visit are planned to be held in the frames of a round table meeting on the NICA project on 21 November 2011.