BRICS cooperation is aimed at complementing and strengthening existing bilateral and multilateral relations among the member countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The MoU on Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) adopted in 2015 is guiding overall cooperation covering sustainable agriculture, food security, natural disasters, water resources and pollution treatment, new and renewable energy, energy efficiency, space research, geospatial technology, medicine and life sciences, new materials and nanomaterials, photonics, information and communication technology, ocean and polar sciences, etc.
In 2015 the BRICS STI Framework Programme (BRICS STI FP) has been endorsed aiming to support excellent research on priority areas which can best be addressed by a multinational approach. The initiative should facilitate cooperation among the researchers and institutions in the consortia which consist of partners from at least three of the BRICS countries.
Since 2016 coordinated calls for multilateral research projects are launched under BRICS STI FP inviting researchers from BRICS member states to jointly carry out basic, applied and innovation research projects.
