BRICS Academic Forum has been a regular Track II, P2P feature of the BRICS since the first summit in 2009. India has hosted these events twice before (2012 and 2016), when India was the chair for BRICS. ORF has also organised the Academic Forum (AF) in 2009 (under the Russian Presidency).
The BRICS Academic Forum is being jointly held by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS).