The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and expanding members), STI (Science, Technology, and Innovation) Framework Programme aims to support excellent research on priority areas that can best be addressed by a multinational approach. The initiative should facilitate cooperation among the researchers and institutions in the consortia which consist of partners from at least three of the BRICS countries. 7th Coordinated Call for BRICS Multilateral Projects 2026 is open now. Funding Agencies Following research funding organizations from the BRICS countries have agreed to support BRICS Call: Brazil: National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) China: Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Egypt Science, Technology & Innovation Funding Authority (STDF) India: Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology Iran Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) Russia: Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MSHE) Russian Centre for Science Information (RCSI) South Africa: National Research Foundation (NRF) Aim of the Joint Call and Thematic areas To support collaborative multilateral basic, applied or innovation research projects in the following thematic areas can be submitted in response to the call Water Resources: Monitoring and Data for Water Systems; Water Treatment, Reuse, and Resource Circularity and Resilience to Water Hazards and Extreme Events through Data-Driven Approaches. High Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence: High Performance Computing and AI Infrastructure Co-Design; Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models and Quantum Computing, Sensing, and Secure Information Technologies. Energy: Solar Energy Technologies and Applications; Integrated Smart and Renewable Energy Systems for Resilient Power Networks and Low-Carbon Energy Pathways, Sector Coupling, and Energy Efficiency. Health, Biotechnology and Biomedicine: Advanced Biotechnology, Genomics, and AI-Assisted Discovery; Personalized Medicine, Diagnostics, and Cell-Based Therapies and Digital Health, Tele-medicine, and AI-Enabled Healthcare Systems. Food: Climate-Resilient Crops and Advanced Plant Biotechnology; Digital and Precision Agriculture for Sustainable Production and Sustainable Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Food Quality Monitoring Materials Science: Advanced Functional and Smart Materials; Materials for Energy Conversion, Storage, and Sustainability and Advanced Functional Materials: Nano materials, Bio-materials, and Resilient Systems. Eligibility Eligible Indian partners can be Legal Scientific research entities from public/private academic institutions, national R&D laboratories, R&D entities having recognition as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (SIRO) by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research under the scheme on Recognition of Scientific and Industrial Research Organisations (SIRO), 1988. The scientific R&D performing Indian industry may participate voluntarily in this call with participating Indian industry investing its own resources or come in collaboration with research/academic organization, but by investing their own resources. Consortium: A joint proposal will comprise of at least one PI from each of the participating countries, and a project coordinator or the leading PI acting as the overall project coordinator. Project consortia should consist of partners from at least three BRICS countries. All applicants must fulfil their respective national eligibility rules for research grant applications. Funding Support (DST) Maximum Indian support for each Project: Up to Indian Rupees ₹1.0 crore approx. with full justification of budget heads for 2/3 years duration subject to obligatory fulfilment of eligibility criteria. The project duration should match-up with the durations of all partner countries. Funding instruments (as per DST guidelines) Head Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 (in case the project is of three-year duration) Total Equipment (maximum limit upto 30% of budget) (list of proposed equipment should be given with due justification) Consumables Cost: (as essential for collaborative work DST will fund such requirement of Indian project partners only) Manpower Cost: Junior Research Fellow (JRF)/ Senior Research Fellow (SRF)/ Research Associate (RA). (Emoluments will be as per DST OM No. DST/PCPM/Z-06/2022 (E-file: 1804) dated June 06, 2023 and as revised time-to-time) Mobility of scientists /research fellows (for one to two weeks as per project requirement): (Visits of Indian Scientist to BRICS countries' collaborating institutes for project work and national travel for project related work) (overseas travel cost includes cheapest international economic class fare through shortest route, boarding & lodging), Visa fees, overseas medical insurance premium for the duration of stay (Break-up of Domestic & International travel to be provided separately) Contingency as per DST norms Overhead Charges (As per DST norms): Overhead expenses payable to institute for Indian partners Total Cost Admissible Cost requested from DST Important Notice: This budget table should be made for each Indian participating/applicant partner. Details and justification should be provided for each head. Non-Admissible Cost: Regulatory approval fees; Prosecution/litigation costs; Any kind of Insurance coverage; Salary of investigators; Capital expenditure for the purchase of assets such as office furniture, motor vehicles, Office equipment viz. desktops, laptops, tablets, cell phones, scanners, printers, photocopy machines, and renovation or extension of facilities such as buildings and laboratories; Capital expenditure toward technology(ies), demonstration plants and associated field equipment(s), hardware, software etc. for test and analysis from consortium partner(s) from abroad; Expenditure toward rental and utilities; International travel to countries other than the one participating within the consortia in a particular call; Mere attendance at conferences/ symposiums/ congresses other than project work Other Documents: PI, whose project is recommended by Expert Committee after peer review for funding, will have to submit necessary documents such as Checklist, IPR arrangement, approvals of necessary authority such as ICMR, National Biodiversity Authority, Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC), Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBSC) Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM), Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) and approval for pre-clinical and or human clinical trials etc. as the case may be, and any other documents required by DST/DBT. General guidelines for building BRICS MULTILATERAL PROJECTS-BRICS CALL 2026: The applicants to clearly define project goals along with timelines that could be achieved within project duration (i.e. 2/3 years). Outcome/deliverables need to be specified The applicants need to provide short account of on-going bilateral/multilateral projects with BRICS Member States and BRICS countries at large, if any. This is required to determine the essentiality/redundancy of India-BRICS countries and the genuine need for applying for grants under the present coordinated Call for BRICS. The proposals should clearly bring out novelty and innovation component vis-à-vis global scenario Scientific and technological benchmarks. The proposal should elaborate linkages proposed to be developed amongst various project consortium partners for optimization of time and achievement of deliverables The project managements, milestones, quantitative parameters for monitoring and internal monitoring systems/ procedures need to be spelt out The proposal should bring out industrial partner's (if any) commitment for taking forward successful solution for wider applications. The proposal should clearly demonstrate a balanced participation of BRICS partners with properly integrated research activities and complementary roles. The IPR sharing will be governed by national domestic laws and under the framework of BRICS STI MoU and/or India bilateral S&T Agreement with BRICS Countries as applicable. The Indian PI along with other BRICS partner will have to submit an IPR sharing arrangement, technical annex document and Consortium Agreement, in case, the proposal is finally selected for funding support. Selected PROJECT PI will have to submit necessary documents such as check list, IPR arrangement, approvals of necessary authority such as ICMR, National Biodiversity Authority, Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC), Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBSC) Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM), Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) and approval for pre-clinical and or human clinical trials etc as the case may, and any other documents required by DST. Proposal submission process The Lead Project Investigator has to submit the National Application to their funding agency in their respective country in the prescribed Format on or before closing date. Please note that the closing date in different BRICS country may vary. In India single National Application must be submitted online ONLY at DST's Electronic Project Management System (e-PMS) until 3rd July, 2026 in the prescribed format along with other necessary documents. No hard copy will be accepted. Note: This is additional requirement in each participating countries. Please ensure that your collaborators have also submitted the national document in their respective countries Last date for Receipt of Applications: Online National Application must be submitted by 3rd July, 2026 after which the web-link will be AUTOMATICALLY disabled. Contact Information Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology Dr. Arindam BhattacharyyaScientist 'F'Department of Science and TechnologyMinistry of Science & Technology, Govt. of IndiaPhone: 011 26590409Email: a.bhattacharyya@nic.in List of Documents Required for Online Submission: The followings documents may be prepared by Indian PI and uploaded on the DST Portal www.onlinedst.gov.in. The requisite formats are listed below. Biodata Certificate from Investigator(s) [annexure I] Endorsement from the Head of Institution (on letter head) [annexure II] Conflict of Interest [annexure III] Complete Proposal (1pdf file and 1Doc file) as indicated in online portal Source: Department of Science & Technology (DST)