Outcomes of the Roundtable “New Formats of BRICS Cooperation in STI”
On 19 October, the BRICS Expert Council-Russia held a roundtable on advancing scientific, technological and innovation (STI) cooperation among BRICS countries. The event was a part of the academic track and brought together more than 70 participants, including representatives of the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education, members of the academic community, heads of regional universities and young researchers.
In her opening remarks, Victoria Panova, Head of the BRICS Expert Council-Russia, stressed the importance of the topic amid mounting economic pressure and Western countries’ increasingly aggressive efforts to maintain their dominance. She emphasized that BRICS countries face a major task: to merge their forces to achieve technological leadership and accelerate development in the face of global competition.
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While Western approaches often treat international relations as a zero-sum game, viewing them primarily through the lens of competition in which one country’s success comes at another’s expense, we take a different view. Russia and its BRICS partners are guided by a fundamentally different paradigm: interstate cooperation should be based on complementarity and the joint development of capabilities.
The experts discussed the current state of STI cooperation within BRICS and its prospects. They also highlighted the role of the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education as the key coordinator of the Russian academic community’s participation in the joint BRICS initiatives.
The BRICS STI Framework Programme has played an important role in advancing cooperation. Functioning for more than a decade, it covers a broad range of emerging scientific and technological fields. At the same time, Albina Kutuzova, Head of Division at the Department of International Cooperation of the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education, noted that more needed to be done to engage the academic and expert communities. Raising awareness of the available cooperation formats, she explained, would help attract new participants and strengthen confidence in the BRICS initiatives.
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Our task is to encourage our colleagues and partners to engage in the closest possible practical cooperation within BRICS. This includes developing common criteria for scientific approaches and performance, while bringing together the efforts of all participants.
Irina Kuklina, Expert at the BRICS Expert Council-Russia and Executive Director of the Analytical Centre for International Science, Technology and Education Programmes, moderating the roundtable highlighted the potential of the younger generation of researchers.
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Systematically integrating young researchers from BRICS countries into working groups and project teams is a strategic asset in building sustainable international research teams and giving cooperation the momentum it needs.
During the discussion, experts identified systemic barriers that hinder the expansion and long-term sustainability of STI cooperation. Key challenges include mismatches between funding and reporting cycles, unresolved questions surrounding data use and intellectual property rights, differences in research evaluation systems, and disparities in funding levels.
To address these barriers, participants proposed to establish a sustainable framework for cooperation, including common governance and evaluation mechanisms. Such a framework would help Russian researchers gain access to research infrastructure across BRICS countries and facilitate large-scale joint projects.