Determining the Smart Specialization of Russian Regions in the Context of Domestic and European Experience

Abstract

Abstract— The relevance of applied engineering of new development mechanisms for Russian regions is due to the ineffectiveness of innovative strategies currently in force and isolation of scientific and technological development from the sectoral potential of the territories. Russia’s Spatial Development Strategy until 2025, approved in 2019, led to a conflict between promising sectoral economic specializations and the real problems of different types of territories. The “smart specialization” approach may take the lead in aligning the sectoral and territorial approaches. The article describes the differences between traditional and smart specializations. It is shown that in the case of smart specialization, it is not the selection of individual sectors as “points” that takes place, but determination of the set of types of economic activity in conjunction with regional competencies as a fuzzy core with blurred boundaries. The characteristics of the sectoral, patent, innovation, and publishing components as integral parts of the developed methodological approach, are given. All components are linked through the priorities of the Science and Technology Development Strategy, which plays the role of a national research platform (program) reflecting the long-term priorities of the economy and society. The coordinated choice of regional development prospects solves the problem of isolated technological forecasts for territories. Coordination of sectoral and scientific and technological priorities for a territory can be considered the basis for selecting regional investment projects. This will allow the federal executive authorities to set a general framework for the most desirable goals of scientific and technological development in a spatial context, and to take on venture risks with the support of technology start-ups and emerging sectors.