Scientific collaboration and high-technology exchanges among BRICS and G-7 countries

Over the last two decades, emerging countries located outside North America and Europe have reshaped the global economy. These countries are also increasing their share of the world’s scientific output. This paper analyzes the evolution of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and G-7 countries’ international scientific collaboration, and compares it with high-technology economic exchanges between 1995–1997 and 2010–2012. Our results show that BRICS scientific activities are enhanced by their high-technology exports and, to a larger extent, by their international collaboration with G-7 countries which remains, over the period studied, at the core of the BRICS scientific collaboration network. However, while high-technology exports made by most BRICS countries to G-7 countries have increased over the studied period, both the intra-BRICS high-technology flows and the intra-BRICS scientific collaboration have remained very weak.