  The Nuclotron-base Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) is under construction at the
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), with commissioning of the facility
expected in late 2022. The Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) has been designed to
operate at NICA and its components are currently in production. The detector is
expected to be ready for data taking with the first beams from NICA. This
document provides an overview of the landscape of the investigation of the QCD
phase diagram in the region of maximum baryonic density, where NICA and MPD
will be able to provide significant and unique input. It also provides a
detailed description of the MPD set-up, including its various subsystems as
well as its support and computing infrastructures. Selected performance studies
for particular physics measurements at MPD are presented and discussed in the
context of existing data and theoretical expectations.
