Innovation development of the North-Western Federal District

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate and analyse the different aspects of the innovation development of the North-Western Federal District (the Russian Federation). The concepts of innovations, innovation development, innovative economy, knowledge-based economy, state innovation system, innovation ecosystem and regional innovation development have been defined. Also, author’s definition of the innovative development of a region was proposed. Documents regulating the innovation strategy and innovation policy of the North-Western Federal District have been analysed. The justification of the undertaken topic comes from the need for defining strong areas of the innovation potential of the North-Western Federal District and requirement for consideration of the regional innovation system elements of the North-Western Federal District such as knowledge-producing environment, knowledge transfer mechanisms, business environment and state, and its innovation infrastructure. The methodology of the study involves studying of the theoretical framework of the innovations, quantitative and qualitative indicators of the innovation development of the North-Western Federal District, and analysis and synthesis of these data. The main results of the study are: innovative development of the region correlates with the general direction of the country’s innovative development; the regional innovation system includes the same macroblocks as the national innovation system does; the North-Western region includes the well-developed innovation infrastructure and all elements of the innovation system. Conclusions on the direction of the innovation development of the North-Western Federal District towards the world’s advanced countries with innovative economy or economy of knowledge as well as on the role of the innovation factor in the regional development have been drawn.