Innovative potential as a factor for advanced development of a region

Introduction: rapid changes in the macroeconomic situation in the Russian Federation have created new threats for the development of its regions. In particular, the Republic of Mordovia is a direct participant of economic relations, it receives support from the federal government for the implementation of programs of socio-economic development of the region, which offers great opportunities and prospects. However, interregional competition for the location of new production facilities, for the federal government's financial support of innovative business projects, for intellectual capital and highly qualified workers are does not allow to stop and makes the regions continuously develop and strengthen their innovative potential and innovative activities. The objective of the article is to identify the innovative potential of the Republic of Mordovia, the opportunities and threats of sustainable innovative development. Materials and Methods: the materials used for writing this paper were the data from the territorial body of the Federal State Statistics Service in the Republic of Mordovia, the information and analytical agencies. The study was conducted using the principles of systemic and integrated approaches, the following general scientific methods and techniques were also used: analytical review, abstraction, synthesis, dynamic, coefficient and logical analysis. Results: various information and analytical agencies conducted a continuous analysis of the innovation potential of the country and its constituent regions, for the purposes of monitoring and administration. According to experts, a subsidy from the federal budget for development of innovative infrastructure became a prerequisite for a high rating of the Republic of Mordovia, because of it a number of indicators had high values, and in the future the rating may go down. Consequently, the Republic of Mordovia needs to consolidate and strengthen its present position in the list of in­novative regions of Russia, and to achieve this, even greater efforts should be made to intensify the innovative activity and increase the innovative potential. Examination of the results of rating have led to the conclusion that in comparison with the indicators average for Russia, the Republic of Mordovia has a number of strengths, the use of which in the future will allow not only to consolidate the achieved results, but also to accelerate the pace of innovative development. Discussion and Conclusions: the main resource of the Republic of Mordovia is its people, intelligence and science. Support of the scientific community, development of science intensive industries and introduction of newest technologies, formation of effective approaches in the development of innovative activities in the Republic of Mordovia, creating conditions for the development of the system of venture innovation funding, impro­ving the system of support of science intensive small and medium business, taking into account the dynamically changing reality will provide sustainable innovative development of the Republic and will allow to take a worthy position in the economic system of the country.