The BRICS-BEST consortium and BIOGEN project brought together scientists from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to advance research in renewable energy, biofuels, and energy efficiency. BRICS-BEST focused on producing biofuels from local biomass such as palm oil residues in Brazil, rice straw in China and India, sugarcane bagasse in South Africa, and wood residues in Russia. Both initiatives contributed significantly to knowledge sharing, capacity building, and research publications, with BRICS-BEST producing 49 articles and 18 book chapters.
BIOGEN aimed to produce fermentative hydrogen from agricultural waste using biotechnology-based processing, leveraging the experience and knowledge of all five countries to enhance process efficiency, local research capacity, human resource development, and technological advancement.
| Call Number | Second BRICS STI Framework Programme Call, 2017 | |
| Project Code and Acronym | BRICS2017-418 “BRICS-BEST” | |
| Country | Research Institutions | Principal Investigators |
|---|---|---|
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | Federal University of Parana | Carlos Ricardo Soccol |
| 🇷🇺 Russia | Federal Research Centre “Fundamentals of Biotechnology” | Arkady P. Sinitsyn |
| 🇮🇳 India | Indian Institute of Science | Sudesh K Yadav |
| 🇨🇳 China | Tianjin University of Science & Technology | Zhengxiang Wang |
| 🇿🇦 South Africa | Durban University of Biotechnology and Food Technology | Kugenthiren Permaul |
| Funding Agencies | National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of Brazil (CNPq), Russian Center for Scientific Information (RCSI), Department of Science and Technology of India (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST), National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) | |
| Call Number | Fifth BRICS STI Framework Programme Call, 2021 | |
| Project Code and Acronym | BRICS2021-293 “BIOGEN” | |
| Country | Research Institutions | Principal Investigators |
|---|---|---|
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | Federal University of Parana | Carlos Ricardo Soccol |
| 🇷🇺 Russia | Ministry of Science & Higher Education / RCSI | Yuriy Litti |
| 🇮🇳 India | CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology | Binod Parameswaran |
| 🇨🇳 China | Hunan Agricultural University | Binghua Yan |
| 🇿🇦 South Africa | Durban University of Biotechnology and Food Technology | Kugenthiren Permaul |
| Funding Agencies | National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of Brazil (CNPq), Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia (MSHE), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) | |
