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Science and Technology Priority Areas in BRICS+ Countries
With the convening of the BRICS summits in China in 2017, in South Africa in 2018 and in Brazil in 2019, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has entered its second decade and been expanded to the “BRICS+” countries. “Partnership for New Industrial Revolution” and “Innovation-driven Development” have become the highlights and focus of BRICS cooperation in the new decade and have attracted much attention. The first BRICS Comprehensive Innovation Competitiveness Report was published in August 2017. Compared to it, the BRICS Comprehensive Innovation Competitiveness Report 2020 has four distinctive features. First, all the 32 level-three indicators in the indicator system for evaluating innovation competitiveness of BRICS countries, such as R&D expenditure, patents and R&D personnel, have been calculated and analyzed. Second, considering the importance of agriculture, three thematic reports on agriculture have been included. Third, the reports on the STI development in the provinces or regions of China and Russia, the efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change through STI in India and new energy development in South Africa have been added to the section of country reports, with the aim to promote BRICS cooperation at the sub-national level and in industrial sectors. Fourth, the 2017 report was mainly written by Chinese experts with the support of Russian experts, while the 2020 report is mainly written by Chinese and Russian experts, with input contributed by experts from Brazil, India, South Africa and other African countries. This report mainly consists of three parts. Part 1 consists of two general reports on “Assessment and Prediction of Innovation Competitiveness, Status Quo and Suggestions for STI Cooperation Among BRICS Countries” and “Science and Technology Priority Areas in BRICS+ Countries”, respectively. They provide an assessment of the “innovation competitiveness” and “comprehensive innovation competitiveness” of BRICS countries and a forecast of the development trend of their “comprehensive innovation competitiveness”. Meanwhile, they review the status and progress of STI cooperation between China and other BRICS countries, and identify the priority areas for STI cooperation among “BRICS+” countries, providing valuable input for policymaking that would accelerate the improvement of their national innovation competitiveness. Part 2 consists of country reports and thematic reports. The country reports assess and analyze the innovation competitiveness of the BRICS countries and examine STI cooperation within the BRICS framework. The thematic reports provide in-depth analysis of current situation and challenges of relevant countries in agriculture areas. Part 3 is annexes, including a collection of relevant documents concerning BRICS STI cooperation framework.