On October 27-28th 2015 in the framework of the Russian Presidency in BRICS Senior Officials and Ministers on Science Technology and Innovation met in Moscow.
The main goal of the meetings is to create favorable conditions to transform BRICS “from a forum for dialogue into a fully formatted mechanism for strategic interaction” in the key areas of science and technology (Durban Declaration adopted at the V Durban Summit).
Following the BRICS Senior Officials and Ministers meetings the final version of the BRICS STI Work Plan 2015-2018 was agreed on and signed. Along with the previous Brasilia Declaration and Ufa Declaration (adopted at the VII Ufa Summit) the Work Plan fixes BRICS Research and Innovation Initiative. Establishment of two Working groups: WG on the BRICS STI funding, WG on the BRICS research infrastructures, including mega-science projects, new initiatives, such as BRICS Young Scientists Forum and Action Plan 2015-2016 are proposed within the Initiative.
The results of the Ministers Meeting were stated in Moscow Declaration.
On the margins of the meeting ministers took part in the Round-table discussion “BRICS Research Infrastructure” in the Open Innovations Forum. Along with the perspectives of BRICS Research Infrastructure ministers discussed initiated by the Russian side GRAIN (Global Research Advanced Infrastructure Network) project which was also included in the BRICS STI Work Plan 2015-2018.
In order to implement BRICS Research and Innovation Initiative the Russian side initiated the First Meeting of the BRICS Group of S&T Funding Parties which took place on the 6-7 July 2015 in Moscow. The meeting gave a good start for initializing funding of multilateral joint projects for research, technology commercialization and innovation involving relevant Ministries and Agencies, Funds and Foundations, development institutions, national and regional S&T funding bodies.
For information
Basic steps for STI cooperation within BRICS were agreed and put down in Brasilia Declaration during the II Summit of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in BRICS in March 2015 following with the adoption of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation.