Research and innovation remain important instruments for enhancing competitiveness, accelerating growth, and promoting equitable growth within the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and globally, says South Africa’s Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor.
Minister Pandor attended the 4th BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting in Jaipur, India, last fall where the BRICS Ministers of Science and Technology lauded the outstanding progress in BRICS cooperation since their last gathering in 2015. This included the launch of a comprehensive framework program for funding research and innovation partnerships between the BRICS countries. The first call for proposals under this program attracted close to 400 proposals in areas such as advanced materials, nanotechnology, and the life sciences.
“I would like to emphasize the impact of the first pilot calls under the BRICS framework program for multilateral cooperation in research and innovation. It is, to quote an often used expression these days, a game changer in the field of international science and technology partnerships. What we have achieved in less than a year, other partnerships have taken decades to construct. The overwhelming response from our research and innovation communities to opportunities for cooperation provided under the program should encourage us to build on this success and to implement an ambitious second call without delay,” Pandor says.
Pandor also emphasized the strategic importance of the proposed BRICS science and technology enterprise partnership. The BRICS partnership enterprise will focus on Science, Technology and Innovation on accelerating economic growth, providing an enabling framework to achieve this objective.
BRICS science and technology ministers will again meet in China in 2017.
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Research and innovation remain important instruments for enhancing competitiveness, accelerating growth, and promoting equitable growth within the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and globally, says South Africa’s Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor.
Minister Pandor attended the 4th BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting in Jaipur, India, last fall where the BRICS Ministers of Science and Technology lauded the outstanding progress in BRICS cooperation since their last gathering in 2015. This included the launch of a comprehensive framework program for funding research and innovation partnerships between the BRICS countries. The first call for proposals under this program attracted close to 400 proposals in areas such as advanced materials, nanotechnology, and the life sciences.
“I would like to emphasize the impact of the first pilot calls under the BRICS framework program for multilateral cooperation in research and innovation. It is, to quote an often used expression these days, a game changer in the field of international science and technology partnerships. What we have achieved in less than a year, other partnerships have taken decades to construct. The overwhelming response from our research and innovation communities to opportunities for cooperation provided under the program should encourage us to build on this success and to implement an ambitious second call without delay,” Pandor says.
Pandor also emphasized the strategic importance of the proposed BRICS science and technology enterprise partnership. The BRICS partnership enterprise will focus on Science, Technology and Innovation on accelerating economic growth, providing an enabling framework to achieve this objective.
BRICS science and technology ministers will again meet in China in 2017.