Dilepton and $\phi$ meson production in elementary and nuclear collisions at the NICA fixed target experiment

We argue that the NICA fixed target experiment will be able to provide very important new experimental data on dilepton and $\phi$ meson production in the basically undiscovered energy domain between the SIS and SPS energies. Experimental information about elementary cross sections in this energy region is an essential ingredient of models of nuclear collisions in the same energy range.