Building South–South Capability: BRICS, AI, Health & Industrial Policy

Описание: Science, technology and innovation in the BRICS
Speakers: Phano Mashau, Carlos Gadelha, Mariano Laplane

How can science and technology cooperation translate into development, welfare, and strategic autonomy across the Global South? This panel examines BRICS pathways from research to production amid geopolitical headwinds, AI disruption, and climate urgency.

Between August 25 and 26, 2025, the Institute of Economics at Unicamp hosted the 6th edition of the International School on Development Challenges, bringing together researchers, professors, and students from several countries to discuss the challenges of development in times of climate crisis and geopolitical tensions.

Opening with a South African perspective, Prof. Fo Masau (Durban University of Technology) connects U.S. tariff shocks to industrial strategy, highlighting opportunities in clean energy, EV components, and hydrogen. He argues that technological capability—not import dependence—must anchor responses, using vivid examples such as South Africa’s single, aging driver’s-license printing system to show why domestic R&D and capital goods matter. Masau frames AI, data-driven trade, and “conscious capitalism” as practical agendas: invest in STI, govern AI ethically, and align profitability with planetary boundaries.

From Brazil, Carlos Gadelha (former Vice-Minister of Health) presents the Health Economic-Industrial Complex (HEIC) as a systemic approach that integrates biopharma, medical devices, services, and digital connectivity. The aim: link technological paradigms to universal health goals (SUS), reduce external dependency, and use public procurement, industrial policy, and mission-oriented governance to convert innovation into lives saved—citing COVID-19 vaccination as evidence of the value of local production.

Concluding, Renato Garcia maps BRICS STI cooperation: the Framework Programme’s multi-country calls, flagship projects involving all members, and lessons in horizontal (non-hierarchical) South–South governance. With BRICS expanding, he identifies the next frontier—moving from science to scalable innovation—which requires firms, finance, manufacturing know-how, and policy learning to turn labs into low-cost, accessible products.

00:00:00 – Panel intro & framing
00:02:30 – Masau: tariffs, trade shifts and tech capability
00:06:30 – Clean energy, EV components and hydrogen prospects
00:10:30 – AI, data-driven trade and ‘conscious capitalism’
00:14:30 – Case: South Africa’s license-card bottleneck & lessons
00:18:30 – Gadelha: Brazil’s Health Economic-Industrial Complex (HEIC)
00:23:00 – Missions, procurement and pandemic evidence on local production
00:27:00 – Digital/AI layer in health: connectivity, data, equity
00:31:00 – Garcia: BRICS STI Framework, flagship projects, governance
00:36:00 – From research to scalable innovation: firms, finance, policy learning

Realização: Instituto de Economia da Unicamp
Coordenação: Prof. Dr. Bruno De Conti
Direção do IE-Unicamp: Prof. Dr. Célio Hiratuka
Apoio: Fapesp. Capes, Unicamp.

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