Experts deliberated on emerging issues in the various fields of Biotechnology and Biomedicine at the fourth BRICS Working Group meeting on the subject area. BRICS is the acronym coined to associate five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

More than 60 participants, including researchers, academicians, and government officials participated in the online meeting organized from May 25 to May 26 2021.

The members of the working group on Biotechnology and Biomedicine suggested future directions of research collaboration among BRICs countries in the areas such as Antimicrobial Resistance, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Health Medicine, Non-Communicable Diseases, Neurological Disorders, Agro-biotechnology, Food and Nutrition, Cancer, long Post-Covid Challenges and Complications including Molecular Pathogenesis of COVID-19 virus.

The meeting was sponsored by, Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), China and was organized by the China National Center for Biotechnology Development.

From Indian side, key scientific institutions that participated include Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, India, Banaras Hindu University, Delhi University.

India proposed BRICS Consortium to address Post Covid challenges, tackling Non-Communicable Diseases as Flagship Programme whereas Russia proposed Sustainable Agro-biotechnology for Healthy Food & Nutrition, advanced Virtual Reality assisted technology for neurorehabilitation. China proposed Cancer research as Flagship Programme.