Sustainable Innovation Funding as a Tool for Developing the Economic System

Abstract

The presented study examines the problems of public and private funding in the innovation domain of the national economic system. Based on the analysis of foreign experience, the authors propose creating federal and regional innovation funds within the Russian economic system driven by publicprivate partnership.Aim. The study aims to substantiate potential directions for the program of public-private funding of the national innovation system.Tasks. The authors examine the existing mechanism of innovation funding from the perspective of development of the national economic system; analyze the foreign experience of public funding of innovation-driven development of the economic system; examine approaches to solving the problem of public innovation funding in Russia; substantiate the implementation of innovation funds based on the principles of public-private partnership into the national economic system.Methods. This study uses the methods of institutional and structural analysis and the systems approach to formulate proposals and substantiate the implementation of innovation funds into the national innovation policy.Results. Based on the analysis of the funding mechanism of the national innovation policy within the national economic system, and considering the experience of the world’s developed innovation-driven economies, the authors substantiate the implementation of innovation funds based on the principles of public-private partnership and aimed primarily at providing financial support for the corporate sector of the national economic system in the field of innovative technologies.Conclusions. With a view to create an efficient funding model for the innovative development of the national economic system in Russia, the study substantiates the need to establish a system of federal and regional innovation funds based on public-private partnership. Their functions would include accumulation of funds and their allocation among individual innovation projects with clearly defined results. The activity of the established federal innovation fund can be differentiated to cover the most important directions and critical technologies, thus improving Russia’s position in the global competition. The purpose of regional funds is to ensure technological development that would enhance the competitiveness of regions at the national level (with allowance for regional specialization and development of mass innovative entrepreneurship). Combined with the use of such market tools as providing financial guarantees on investments in innovation, this will ensure positive dynamics of innovative development of the national economic system as a whole.