The 1st Meeting of the BRICS STI Steering Committee was held at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation on February 10-11, 2020.

The BRICS STI Steering Committee is aimed at improving the efficient coordination in the area of STI activities among the BRICS countries. The need to develop such a mechanism of cooperation was first emphasized by the Russian Federation in South Africa in 2018 and was due to providing coordination and management of the growing in size and scope amount of the BRICS STI events.

The BRICS STI Steering Committee was created in order to implement the concept “A New BRICS STI Architecture” (stated in Campinas Declaration, September 20, 2019), intended to streamline the structure of BRICS STI cooperation.

In compliance with the New BRICS STI Architecture, BRICS STI cooperation is structured on the basis of four pillars:

1.   Research Collaboration, implemented by the BRICS STI Working Groups;

2.    Research Infrastructure cooperation;

3.    Innovation Collaboration;

4.   Sustainability (long-term cooperation), organizing the BRICS Young Scientist Forum, Meeting of the BRICS Academies of Science and Conferences on Technology Foresight and STI policy).

The Meeting was devoted to defining main aims and goals of the BRICS STI Steering Committee activities, establishing the mechanism of cooperation among the members of the BRICS STI Steering Committee. The Russian Federation informed foreign partners about the key events within the framework of the Russian Presidency in BRICS in 2020, including the BRICS STI Ministerial Meeting (June 2, 2020, Saint-Petersburg), BRICS Water Forum (May 14-15, 2020, Kazan) and BRICS Young Scientist Forum (September 7-11, 2020, Chelyabinsk).

Another major theme of the discussion during the first Meeting of the BRICS STI Steering Committee was the structure of the web-platform, designated to raise the public awareness about the BRICS STI cooperation and facilitate the process of cooperation in the BRICS STI Working Groups and other platforms of cooperation in the area of science, technology and innovations in BRICS.

The second Meeting of the BRICS STI Steering Committee is scheduled to be held on May 30th, 2020 in Saint Petersburg.