Innovative superregions: best practices, formation mechanisms and prospects for creation in Russia

Abstract

Relevance of the research: at the present time, a new round of competitive technological race, spurred on by the United States and China, is clearly visible. Even today, the budget for research and development in China and the United States is 20 times higher than the budget for R&D in Russia, which creates the risk of losing national technological sovereignty. The answer to this challenge could be the creation of super-regions territories of scientific and technological breakthrough, in which intelligence, research and innovation infrastructure are concentrated, where there are world-class campuses with high quality conditions, and effective interaction between business, science and education is organized. The aim of the study is to analyze the best world practices for creating technological super-regions in order to form an effective national innovation system and to develop conceptual proposals for creating technological super-regions in Russia. Research methods and methodology: comparative analysis, system analysis, quantitative and qualitative analysis, historical and economic analysis. Scientific novelty: the work contains a comprehensive analysis of the factors and mechanisms of formation of 10 global super-regions of the world with different spatial formats and genesis, which include: Silicon Valley (USA), urban innovation ecosystems of Boston (USA) and Cambridge (UK), Raleigh Research Triangle Durham Chapel Hill (Research Triangle Park, USA), Sophia Antipolis (France), Silicon Allee (Germany), Tsukuba (Japan), Bangalore-Karnataka (India), Shenzhen (China) and Guangzhou (China). An author's model of a super-region has been developed, as well as criteria for choosing locations for creating superregions. Results: based on the analysis of foreign practices, it was revealed that among the mechanisms for the formation of super-regions, a hybrid model prevails: government intervention is combined with the initiative of business and academic circles. The authors have developed a model of an innovative super-region, where in the center there are two equivalent factors the 'place' factor (everything that is created in a given location by a person) and the 'climate' factor (nature and climate that cannot be changed), as well as a set of selection criteria for potential locations. On the basis of the developed model, recommendations are proposed for choosing territories for creating innovation centers in Russia: in the short term, these include Greater Sochi (Adler, Krasnaya Polyana), New Moscow; in the medium term the southern coast of Crimea, Primorsky Krai and the Kaliningrad region.

Full document