Multilateral Cooperations

G20

G20 consists of Heads of the States of 19 major economies namely G8 (The Group of Eight i.e. highly industrialized nations - France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Japan, United States, Canada, and Russia) + BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) + Australia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea + EU (European Union). In 2016, Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) was included in the agenda of G20 following the proactive initiatives by India and other developing countries. 

A 'G20 Blueprint on Innovative Growth' and A 'G20 Innovation Action Plan' was later endorsed. The deliberations were upon key issues such as (i) Policy and Practices on Innovation-driven Growth (ii) Innovation & Entrepreneurship (iii) Priority Areas and Modalities of STI Cooperation and (iv) Science and Technology Human Resources and Innovative Talent. The participants shared their country’s STI policies, programmes, challenges and future plans and emphasised on open science, creation of new knowledge and research infrastructure, promoting PPP (Public Private Partnership) and building an ecosystem to support innovation and entrepreneurship and development of human resource especially skill development, and inclusion of marginalised, young and women in STI. The G20 maintains close association with many International Organizations and also has outreach groups. Interestingly, Science20 (S20) platform has been created in 2017. 

Countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea-(ROK), Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America, European Union (EU)