BRICS nations signed Moscow Declaration for supporting Multilateral Science Projects

BRICS nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on 30 October 2015 signed Moscow Declaration for co-investment of resources for supporting multilateral Research and Development (R&D) Projects in mutually agreed areas.

The Moscow Declaration was signed during the third meeting of the BRICS Ministers for Science, Technology and Innovation that was held in Moscow, Russia. Indian delegation to this meeting was led by Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences.

The declaration reflects BRICS partnership in addressing common global and regional socio-economic challenges, utilising such drivers as science, technology and innovation (STI).  It calls for collaboration in:

• Co-operation for large research infrastructures, including mega-science projects along with coordination of the existing large-scale national programme of member countries.
• Implementation and development of a BRICS Framework Programme for funding joint multilateral research projects, innovation and technology commercialization.
• Establishment of BRICS Research and Innovation Networking Platform.

BRICS Action Plan 2015-18
The BRICS nations meeting also endorsed a BRICS Action Plan 2015-18 on BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation cooperation.

The Work Plan outline detailed modalities of BRICS collaboration such as Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Disasters led by Brazil; Water resources and pollution treatment led by Russia; Geospatial technology and its application for development led by India; New and renewable energy, and energy efficiency with focus on Solid-state lightning led by China.

This Work Plan also includes BRICS STI collaboration in Material science led by India and Russia; Biotechnology and Biomedicine led by Russia or Brazil; Information Technologies and High Performance Computing led jointly by China and South Africa; Ocean and Polar Science and Technology led jointly by Brazil and Russia.

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