Status of NICA project

The project of Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility NICA/MPD (+MultiPurpose Detector) under development at JINR (Dubna) is presented. The general goals of the project are providing of colliding beams for experimental studies of both hot and dense strongly interacting baryonicmatter and search for the mixed phase and critical endpoint and spin physics in collisions of polarized protons (deuterons). The first program requires providing of heavy-ion collisions in the energy range of √sNN = 4 - 11 GeV at average luminosity of L = 1 × 1027 cm-2 s-1 for 197Au79+. The polarized beams mode is proposed to be used in energy range of √s = 12 - 27 GeV (protons) at luminosity of L ≥ 1 × 1030 cm-2 s-1. The report contains description of the facility scheme and characteristics in heavy-ion operation mode, status and plans of the project development.