The BRICS grouping, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is a globally important collective outlined by its substantial contributions to international GDP, scientific and technological capability, pure assets, and whole inhabitants. Since its formation, the group has developed right into a distinguished worldwide voice, representing nations that search to problem and supply a substitute for Western hegemony. BRICS capabilities as a collaborative pressure geared toward establishing a multipolar world system. While the group’s positions on international finance and macro-economic points are broadly recognised, the depth of cooperation amongst member states concerning science, expertise, and innovation (STI) stays much less publicised.
At a time in which international scientific collaboration is more and more dictated by geopolitical tensions, techno-nationalism, and strategic competitors, usually manifesting as sanctions and export controls, BRICS assumes a important function in the worldwide STI panorama. Through this platform, member nations coordinate their methods, amplify their collective voice in international financial governance, and affect improvement finance by means of establishments just like the New Development Bank.
These members are additionally very important contributors to international commerce, power manufacturing, and the provision of important pure assets. The 2022 launch of BRICS+ signaled a transfer in the direction of a extra inclusive discussion board, fostering improvement and political cooperation throughout the Global South to cut back technological dependencies. This collaboration is now a concrete effort to construct shared capacities by means of numerous framework programmes. The group’s present membership has expanded to incorporate Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran.
Cooperation in STI
Cooperation in STI has been part of the BRICS agenda since its early years. It was formally recognised in 2011 and later consolidated in conferences between senior officers and the BRICS Ministers of Science, Technology, and Innovation. A pivotal 2015 memorandum of understanding established STI as a core strategic pillar, offering the required institutional framework and operational indicators for collaborative analysis and capacity-building. This framework has since expanded the scope of cooperation, permitting members to leverage their complementary strengths to deal with shared improvement challenges and advance frontier sciences.
The first BRICS Action Plan for Innovation Cooperation (2017-2020) tasked the Science, Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Partnership (STIEP) Working Group with implementing numerous programmes. These initiatives targeted on entrepreneurship networks, the function of youth and ladies in STI, and collaborations concerning expertise switch and enterprise incubators. Over time, BRICS has moved from early joint analysis calls targeted on elementary science towards prioritising innovation and expertise switch.
These priorities are formally recognized in annual ministerial declarations. The BRICS Ministers of Science, Technology, and Innovation meet annually to approve and signal strategic paperwork. Within every member nation, one or two lead companies coordinate these actions, difficulty requires proposals, and put together mission lists for approval in the course of the respective nation’s presidency. For instance, throughout India’s chairmanship, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) function the lead companies.
A transparent emphasis on innovation-driven and technology-enabled ecosystems is obvious in latest summit themes and initiatives reminiscent of iBRICs and the BRICS Technology Transfer Centre (TTC). The TTC has made notable progress in creating coverage frameworks and institutional hyperlinks for cross-border expertise commercialisation. However, regardless of this progress, large-scale commercialisation of those applied sciences stays restricted.
The focus of BRICS joint analysis calls has transitioned from fundamental science and enabling applied sciences to incorporate extra socially related areas reminiscent of power, water, well being, and the setting. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this shift, inserting a premium on public well being, vaccine analysis, biosecurity, and digital well being. Recent calls have built-in high-performance computing (HPC), superior supplies, data and communication expertise (ICT), and space-related purposes. Scientific collaboration has strengthened over time, with a rising give attention to synthetic intelligence and data-intensive science.
While working teams replicate these shared improvement priorities, their progress varies throughout totally different fields. Significant progress is seen in ICT and HPC, highlighted by the institution of the BRICS Institute of Future Networks, in addition to in house cooperation following a 2021 intergovernmental settlement. Conversely, areas that require heavy infrastructure or are extra exploratory, reminiscent of mega-science tasks and ocean or polar analysis, have developed slower.
The growth of BRICS has positioned it as a extra inclusive platform for data alternate and collaborative analysis. The 2025 Declaration on AI, elevated synthetic intelligence from a sub-theme, to a central pillar of multilateral governance. This declaration outlines a imaginative and prescient for AI governance that’s equitable, inclusive, and development-oriented, transferring the partnership in the direction of a strategic collaboration with direct financial and societal relevance. While the 2021-24 Action Plan targeted on networking and thematic frameworks, subsequent plans purpose to scale tasks for better influence, specializing in biotechnology, local weather tech, industrial innovation, and AI.
Under India’s 2026 Presidency, with the theme ‘Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability’, the group is positioned to deepen its scientific partnerships. The aim is to leverage expanded membership to strengthen capacities and handle challenges like digital divides, public well being crises, and local weather resilience. However, participation from new members stays uneven; among the many most up-to-date additions, solely Egypt and Iran joined the decision for proposals issued final December. Additionally, the China-BRICS Research Centre on New Quality Productive Forces was not too long ago inaugurated in Beijing. This middle serves as a world platform for tutorial alternate and technological analysis.
Consequences and issues
When in comparison with nations like South Korea, the National Innovation Systems (NIS) of BRICS nations exhibit numerous strengths and weaknesses. Specifically, gross home expenditure on analysis and improvement (GERD) is comparatively decrease throughout the group, excluding China. Research means that the hole between BRICS nations and South Korea is large, and member nations excluding China have important catching as much as do in accordance with numerous innovation indicators. With the growth into BRICS+, the innovation methods of recent members additionally require evaluation and strengthening. This strengthening might be a precedence for BRICS over the following decade, with the potential to ultimately replicate these enhancements throughout the broader Global South.
As famous by Stanford University visiting scholar Irina Dezhina, the heterogeneity of recent members in phrases of each financial improvement and scientific capability makes it troublesome to reconcile differing pursuits. Consequently, BRICS+ could have to give attention to catalysing new “paired links” between particular members. Comparisons to the European Union (EU) recommend that BRICS may be taught from the EU’s large number of STI applications, as BRICS presently gives extra restricted choices. Further, though competitors for funding is intense, the full funding obtainable stays modest.
Experts recommend that these programmes should attain a brand new qualitative stage to successfully reply to main international challenges. Currently, nonetheless, analysis into STI cooperation amongst BRICS nations is restricted, and the present mechanism lacks a framework for normal research to supply data-driven inputs to member nations.
A method ahead
While BRICS nations have achieved important collaboration, there are questions concerning whether or not the present framework is enough for future wants. A main concern is the dearth of a everlasting mechanism to handle STI cooperation. The present system, the place the lead function rotates yearly with the presidency, just isn’t ideally fitted to long-term necessities. BRICS may doubtlessly mannequin a central mechanism after the EU’s Horizon Program, establishing a Secretariat to handle funds, difficulty requires proposals, monitor progress, and assessment outcomes.
Developing a number of long-term Mega-science Projects may additionally foster deeper cooperation. The framework for STI cooperation ought to ultimately develop past simply funding science and expertise tasks; it ought to promote analysis into the governance of STI and the influence of rising applied sciences on BRICS+ nations. This would facilitate better coherence in worldwide treaty negotiations and assist construct capability for STI governance.
In conclusion, whereas STI cooperation inside BRICS has progressed considerably since 2015 regardless of numerous constraints, there may be substantial room for enchancment. Making the framework simpler, agile, and credible will improve the group’s legitimacy in the worldwide area. As the chair of BRICS+ in 2026, India has the chance to guide this transition.
Krishna Ravi Srinivas is Adjunct Professor of Law, Director CoE in AI & Law, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. Sneha Sinha is Consultant, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi