Forecast of the number of doctorate holders in Russia

Introduction. Personnel of the highest scientific qualification are the basis of staffing the competitive development all sectors of the national economy of the Russian Federation. At the same time, there is no reliable statistical information about the total number of Candidates and Doctors of Sciences and their age structure. Scientific publications do not present approaches to carry out the estimate of the number of persons with scientific degrees. Materials and Methods. The article proposes a model for calculating the age-specific number of Candidates and Doctors of Sciences on the basis of annual statistical data on the number of defenses of candidate and doctoral theses and survival rates. Since the detailed data are presented only for the period starting from 2008, and the aggregated data are not known for all years, the corresponding interpolation methods are proposed to restore the missing data. According to the proposed models, calculations of estimates of the number of Candidates and Doctors of Sciences are made, approximation functions are constructed. The results of the calculations were verified on the basis of statistical data on the number of researchers with a degree of Candidate and Doctor of Sciences in different sectors of the economy and the number of Candidates and Doctors of Sciences among the teaching staff of universities. Results. The results of the study are 6 models for calculating the number of Candidates and Doctors of Sciences, approximation function of the multiplicative survival coefficient for persons with scientific degrees, approximation functions of the age distribution of the applicants of degrees of Candidate and Doctor of Science, approximation functions of age-related and cumulative distribution of the number of Candidates and Doctors of Sciences, quantitative estimates of the number of Candidates and Doctors of Sciences in 2019. Discussion and Conclusion. The proposed models have shown their adequacy. As a result of the calculations, it was found that the number of Candidates of Sciences in the age category of 20-80 years is 468,000 people, and the number of Doctors of Sciences in the age category of 30-90 years is 72,000 people. According to the obtained numerical values, approximating functions were constructed to get the number of Candidates and Doctors of Sciences in any age range. Since the system of personnel of the highest scientific qualification is sufficiently inert, the data obtained of age structure of the personnel of the highest scientific qualification will retain its character for at least another 10 years. The obtained estimates of the number of persons with scientific degrees allow us to characterize the personnel potential for decision-making in the management of high-tech sectors of the economy. The constructed models can be used to solve the problems of forecasting in the field of development of science-intensive technologies and in higher education for the training of highly qualified scientific personnel and replenishment of the scientific community.