On March 13, 2021, in the middle of the installation campaign (from February 17 till April 4), the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation visited the site of the neutrino telescope to officially launch the detector and to sign the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) on development of the BAIKAL-GVD Neutrino Telescope. In 2021, BAIKAL-GVD increased its effective volume for showering neutrino interactions up to 0.4 km3.
