Abstract:

Human capital today is a determining factor in the successful development of any company or state in a competitive environment. The most important platform for the formation of human capital is the system of education and science. In recent decades, there has been a tendency for young talented graduates of universities and scientists from Russia to work abroad. In an effort to reduce losses from brain drain, the Russian government has taken a series of measures to support young scientists over the past few years. A comprehensive analysis, assessment of the effectiveness of the measures taken and the development of proposals for their further development are still relevant as for the formation of motivation in the younger generation to apply their creative potential in Russia.

In order to study the effectiveness of the system of preserving and developing human capital in Russian science and higher education, identifying problems in this area and working out the ways to overcome them, the authors analyzed the content of government documents aimed at supporting and involving young scientists into active research. To achieve this goal, the government documents were studied with the use of the method of comparative analysis: the Strategy for Science and Technology Development, 2016 (hereinafter the Strategy), the Action Plan for its implementation, sectoral documents in the field of scientific and technological development. There was the application of the statistical analysis to assess the effectiveness of the full set of measures, as to reveal the dynamics of the age composition of researchers, the percentage of graduates successfully accomplished postgraduate studies. On the basis of Gorshkov and Sheregi’s approach a sociological survey of young researching groups among students, graduate students, and young scientists was conducted with the use of the online questionnaire.

The authors revealed a significant increase in the number of scientific competitions and grants aimed at supporting young scientists, significant changes in the competition requirements to limit the age of managers of scientific projects and to reduce the average age of research teams. Analysis of statistical data showed that the implementation of a set of targeted activities leads to positive shifts in the age structure of researchers, and an increase in the proportion of successful graduate students indicates an increase in the popularity of scientific career among young people. The results of a sociological survey among young researchers confirm that a large proportion of respondents is associated with their scientific activities in Russia. However, there was a revealed shortage of capable scientific leaders and organizational support for project offices.

Furthermore, the implemented complex of measures to support young scientists gives positive results, but further large-scale development is constrained due to the shortage of trained scientific leaders and project offices. To overcome the identified shortcomings in the organization of scientific activity the authors developed qualification requirements for the leaders of scientific teams and the rules of the project office, all these measures will improve the management of scientific research and attract young people to science.

Keywords:

Innovation, technology, science, higher education, young scientists, research projects, human capital.