Assessing Government Support for Research and Innovation in Russian Universities
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Assessing Government Support for Research and Innovation in Russian Universities Mikhail Gershman 1 & Galina Kitova 1
Received: 17 June 2016 / Accepted: 24 July 2016 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract In recent years, evaluation and impact assessments (IA) of research and innovation (R&I) policies have become of interest both to scholars and policy makers. This paper examines public programmes and regulations aimed at stimulating R&I in Russian universities. For this purpose, 299 universities were surveyed in 2013–2014 to reveal their demand for relevant policies and the effects of these policies. We surveyed not only users and beneficiaries of the programmes, but also non-participating universities. Based on survey results, we assess the impact of the policies on universities and suggest recommendations to improve state regulations and evaluation practices. Keywords University . Research and innovation . Policy . Evaluation . Impact assessment . Russia
Introduction The rapid development of research and innovation (R&I) in universities to increase their competitiveness, contribute to technological modernisation, and achieve other national goals has been at the heart of Russian public policy since the late 2000s. This is confirmed both by governmental documents and the significant increase in the scale and scope of the instruments used (Forrat 2016; Gokhberg and Kuznetsova 2015). In recent years, the need to support university research, both as a source of knowledge and industrial innovation catalyst (Rosenberg and Nelson 1994) and as a driver of long-term economic growth (Marozau et al. 2016; OECD 2015; Stevens 2011), has been recognised worldwide. While some countries (i.e. Hungary,
* Mikhail Gershman [email protected]
1
Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, National Research University Higher School of Economics, 9/11 Myasnitskaya str, 101000 Moscow, Russia
J Knowl Econ
Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Turkey, New Zealand, Peru) have carried out reforms of national university systems,1 others (such as the Netherlands, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States) are tightening the terms of university support by increasing the requirements for scientific outcomes, defining priorities, and implementing policy evaluation and impact assessment (IA) procedures (Georghiou 1995; OECD 2003, 2012). As for Russia, state funding of university research is not only continuing but is actually intensifying.2 In 2012, the President of Russia set out the country’s major goals in the fields of education and science up to 2020. Among other things, they include not less than five universities entering the top-100 global university rankings by 2020 and increasing the share of higher education institutions (HEIs) in gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) from 10 % in 2013 to 11.4 % in 2015. Organisational and financial support for these goals is provided by the government programmes ‘Science and Technology Development’ and ‘Education Development’. These programmes include funding
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