Victoria V. Panova is an Associate Professor in the Department of IR and FP at the MGIMO, University MFA Russia. She holds a PhD in history of IR. Since 2003, she is Regional Director for Russia of the G8 Research Group based at the University of Toronto (Canada); since 2010, she directs the MGIMO-UT Fund. She is a member of the National Working Group of the Civil G8 project (2005-2007); she is part of the Common European Security project initiated by High Commissioner J.Solana in 2009. She is currently a member of the Scientific Council/Chief Advisor on Strategy Planning for the NCR BRICS, a member of the working group for Civil 20/8, co-chair for the Civil BRICS, and a permanent member of the Jury for the Youth 8, 20, BRICS. Dr. Panova publishes in a variety of national and international journals. She is a Visiting fellow at University of Cambridge (2007), London School of Economics and Political Sciences (2008-2010), and BRICS Policy Center (2012). Dr. Panova is also an alumna of the Asian Forum on Global Governance organized by ORF (India) and Bucerius School/Zeit Stiftung (Germany).