Building Research Capacity in BRICS and Beyond: Lessons from the International Community

Abstract

Research capacity building and research productivity are essential to the economic flourishing of any nation. Over the past decade, innovation and investment in research and development in BRICS countries – especially India and China – have strongly contributed to their economic growth. The scholarly literature shows that the five-member states have high numbers of (a) university graduates – especially in the fields of engineering and computer science – and (b) research outputs – mainly quantitative. The issue, however, is that the quality of BRICS graduates is sometimes questionable, and the nations are not considered as relevant global players when it comes to the research impact factor. To that end, it is essential to align quantity with quality in BRICS’ higher education institutions. As growing economies, BRICS need to increase their investment in higher education and research capacity building to maximise their economic prosperity. Researchers who are knowledge producers and innovators can be considered the foremost role players in transferring university research to society. Therefore, investing in quality development and support is of the essence. This article is based on the voices of 32 international scholars affiliated with the Comparative Education Society in Europe. The respondents shared their views via an open-ended survey about: (a) the development of globally competent researchers; (b) the expectations placed on present-day researchers; and (c) the demands researchers face in terms of research productivity. The findings indicate that, regardless of the context, researchers are confronted with similar demands, namely: to secure funding; engage in international and interdisciplinary research projects; and produce tangible outputs. It is also evident that research capacity building at respondents’ respective institutions needs enhancement in order to align with the current research demands.

Scientific production of an oral implantology journal: a 5-year bibliometric study

“…The fact that BRICS, as economic emergent countries, meant a predominant region itself, with around 25% of produced articles, could be attributed to the investment in innovation and research by their governments (Altbach, 2013 ; Niemczyk, 2020 ). This may also explain the presence of South Africa as the only country representative of the African region in combination with Egypt, a country which produced 2.7% of all the studied articles.…”

Exploring Research Capacity and Capacity Building Needs Among Faculty Members and Personnel of AIMS: Inputs for Effective Research Training Plan for AIMS

“…Likewise, they agree to support a multidisciplinary research approach (M=3.73) that involves social sciences and applied scientific endeavors and publication in a reputable peer-reviewed organization (M=3.63). Niemczyk, (2020) Table 9 presents the mean distribution of the research capacity assessment of AIMS employees based on Organizational Domains as reflected average weighted mean of 3.74 with a verbal interpretation of Agree. It can be noticed that support for funds got the lowest mean from the three domains: individual, team, and organizational (M=3.66).…”

Sustainable Growth in expanded BRICS: Linking Institutional performance, digital governance, and Green Finance to Environmental Impact

“…A significant amount of academic research has focused on investigating the relationship between ecological degradation, scientific innovation, and institutional performance. However, the current academic literature on the expanded BRICS countries is significantly restricted in its coverage (Niemczyk, 2020). This research contributes to the existing body of knowledge in several ways, including the following: 1) Our research employs a newly developed environmental indicator, known as the ecological footprint, along with N2O, to obtain more reliable and accurate results compared to previous studies that evaluated ecological degradation using CO2 measurements.…”