On the issue of the infrastructure of science cities

The article examines the “science city infrastructure”, determines its importance in the formation and development of the Russian science city with an official status. Contradictions have been identified that underlie a whole range of specific problems of science cities that hinder the socioeconomic development of these territories. There is a difference in the understanding of the term “infrastructure” in the documents regulating the activities of science cities - the law defining the status of these cities (Federal Law 70-FZ “On the status of the Science City of the Russian Federation”) and in the strategies of socio-economic development of science cities, as a result of which these regulations lay down different functions of the infrastructure of science cities. The authors draw attention to the fact that the definition of the infrastructure of a science city from the standpoint of the law as a set of organizations that ensure the vital activity of the population and the functioning of its scientific and industrial complex significantly narrows this concept to a circle of legal entities, whereas in documents developed by science cities themselves, infrastructure represents a life support system (engineering, transport, sports, tourism, etc.), that is, an integral part of urban space that needs support and development to create comfortable living, working and recreation conditions for the city’s population as a whole. The opinion is expressed on the need to develop uniformity in the definition of the term “science city infrastructure”, as well as to form a unified approach to this definition, taking into account the fact that it plays a key role in the life support not only of science cities and regions, but also of every person who lives and works in these cities.