Scientific and technological development of Russia: state assessment and financing problems

The implementation of national aims and The relevance of the scientific and issues related to improving competitiveness in external markets, increasing the human wellbeing level, as well as ensuring national security, is impossible without relying on a scientific and technological basis. The available foreign experience [1] shows that only the states that have determined the growth of science, technologies, and innovation as a strategic imperative, have been able to achieve sustainable socio-economic development.

This issue is also crucial for Russia. It has been impossible to ensure the increasing efficiency of the scientific and technical activities, and achieve the required level of its competitiveness after the transition to the market economy 30 years before [2]. This problem is worsened by the steady acceleration of the scientific and technological progress. Its importance and relevance are mentioned in the speeches of the President of the Russian Federation. Thus, V.V. Putin mentioned in the Address to the Federal Assembly on February, 2020: “Today the speed of technological change in the world is increasing manifold, and we must create our own technologies and standards in areas that define our future”1.

technological development for the state is emphasized in the adopted for implementation the “Science” national project2 where one of the crucial challenges stated “ensuring the presence of the Russian Federation among the five world leading countries conducting research and development in the areas determined by the scientific and technological priorities”.

At the same time, globalization and deepening integration, constant new technologies evolution lead to the fact that the distance and location of the subjects of scientific, scientific-technical and innovative activities are becoming less important factors. Furthermore, the differentiation level of Russian regions in terms of the key indicators of science and technology development continues growing. The difference between the leading and outsider regions is more than 140 times by the indicator of “the share of research and development expenditures in GRP”; in terms of the indicator of “the number of personnel engaged in research and development, people per 10 thousand people”, it is more than 160 times (according to Rosstat data in 2018).

The provision of science and technology development in the country is impossible in the conditions, where the regions so significantly differ in their development level which leads to increased concentration of all resources in particular territories and the flow of the few resources from other territories to them. From the authors’ point of view, the current situation can be leveled if a unified scientific and technological space is formed within the borders of the entire state.

The concept of the spatial evolution is one of the imperatives in Russia. The RF Spatial Development Strategy for the period up to 2025 was approved in 20193. It is intended to ensure the competitive growth of the economy of the RF entities by the implementation of competitive advantages through the development of their promising economic specializations which include both effective existing and potentially effective branches of economic specialization. According to the Strategy, “professional, scientific and technical activities” is marked as promising for more than 50% of the entities of the Russian Federation (48 units) which indicates that there is a significant reserve of scientific, scientific-technical and innovative activities in many regions.

Thus, the provision of scientific and technological development through the formation of the unified scientific and technological space (STSp) of the country is the best variant for ensuring the competitiveness of the state as a whole and increasing the interregional imbalances of the progress. It is important to understand that this approach allows concentrating the possibilities of each RF entity on those subsystems of the scientific and technological space and activity areas which have a certain groundwork or development potential.

In this regard, the purpose of the research is to assess scientific and technological development of Russia in the context of international comparisons, and study a system of R&D financing in the country. The following issues should be solved to achieve this aim: to consider theoretical and methodological approaches to the scientific and technological development and understanding the essence of the scientific and technological space; to analyze the key trends and problems of the scientific and technological development of Russia; to study the system of R&D financing at the federal level;

Theoretical aspects of the research

The issues of the spatial economy development and its separate subsystems have been the subjects of the scientific studies since the begging of the 19th century. At the same time, in recent years, due to the globalization, digitalization of all the aspects of social life, the interstate and interregional borders have been erased, the unified space has been formed where the subjects receive the bigger effect from interaction with each other and from the synergy of these relationships than if they were outside of it [3].

The theory of the scientific and technological development originating in the works of J. Schumpeter (the theory of innovation) [4], has being undergone significant fundamental changes within the 20th and 21st centuries. The theory of innovation of J. Schumpeter fits into the concept of long waves by N.D. Kondratyev

[5] who proves the cyclical nature of economic and technological development processes. In many aspects, Kondratiev’s ideas formed the basis of the theory of innovation diffusion by T. Hagerstrand which is interesting, as it takes into account the location theory, i.e. spatial aspects of the development of technology and diffusion processes.

The basis of the theory of scientific, technological and innovative development was laid by F. Perroux’s concept of growth poles [7]. In his studies he points out that the inequality of economic actors arising for natural reasons allows generating the development points in space which accumulate economic agents around themselves, playing the role of locomotives, thereby forming agglomerations. Later, this theory was reflected in the emergence of technopolises and other forms of organization of scientific, technological and innovative activities.

The theory of the technological paradigm (D.S. Lvov, S.Yu. Glaziev) [8] should be referred to as the conceptual approaches to describing the processes of organizing innovative activities. The latter is understood as groups of related industries connected with each other by the same type of technological chains [9]. In parallel with the theory of technological paradigm, the theory of clusters was dynamically developing in the studies of M. Porter [10]. One of the main theses is that the most competitive companies are concentrated in the same territory which is associated with the wave nature of innovative development and the peculiarities of the innovation diffusion.

The next stage in the evolution of the theory of management of scientific, technological and innovative development was the formation of the concept of National System of Innovation (C. Freeman, B. Lundvall, R. Nelson) [11; 12; 13].

The National System of Innovation (NSI) is understood as a set of various institutions which contribute to the new technological creation and expansion together and individually, making an organizational and legal basis that serves governments for the policy formation and implementation, affecting the innovation process [14]. This concept has a positive experience of realization in the USA, Japan, and a number of economically developed countries.

The current global changes and the technological development, associated with the forth industry revolution, determine the necessity to use other approaches of management of scientific, technological and innovative development. The existing patterns of innovative development need adjustment, as far as the basic principles of interaction, and the organization of management processes in scientific, scientific and technological, and innovative activities are changing in modern conditions. Moreover, the existing approaches do not allow solving one the most crucial problems, reducing the differentiation level in the arrangement of the territories. From the authors’ point of view, it is necessary to talk not about the creation of growth poles (for example, clusters), national systems of innovation, etc. but focus on the space integral development as a unified system of subjects’ interaction with equal opportunities and access to the resource base of relationship.