The world is entering the stage of global transformations, as a result of which a new world order will emerge. The theoretical basis of the ongoing processes is the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Concept of the Humanitarian-Technological Revolution, based on the theory of post-industrial society. At the same time, in both cases, the main driving force is scientific and technological progress. In the new world order, the leading positions will be occupied by countries with the most developed and human-oriented scientific and technological potential. The reforms of the scientific and technological complex of Russia were initially focused on entering the European scientific and technological space. Due to this fact, the main vector of transformations was aimed at institutional transformations aligned with foreign models. However, as it turned out, such an approach does not ensure the presence of the country among the global champions and at the same time poses a threat to technological sovereignty. In this regard, it is necessary to develop a new state scientific and technical policy focused on transferring the economy to the mode of functioning according to a full innovation cycle.

The paper deals with the problem of a huge gap between the knowledge creation and the knowledge impact on the economy, which is relevant for Russia. A possible solution can be found by improving the tools to support the commercialization of research results and the growth of R&D-intensive companies. A set of such tools is seen as a favorable mechanism to turn knowledge into innovation. The main idea of the article, based on a system approach, puts the adoption of strategic decisions before the improvement of the innovation mechanism. As shown in the article, the strategy of scientific and technological development precedes the scenario to develop research and innovation. Guided by the scenario, you can select the appropriate tools to support certain sciences and innovations, since such a choice depends entirely on the strategic goals, scenario, and innovation potential. These provisions are substantiated in the article in relation to Russia. Two types of strategic goals are discussed, and two scenarios of respective types are compared with each other to show the big difference between leaping forward through radical innovation and moving forward through incremental innovation. The key requirements for both types of innovation mechanisms are formulated in the context of the geopolitical and economic crisis. Turbulence brings the economic system to a bifurcation point, which makes innovation governance more responsible in making decisions, so the proposed provisions can be useful in developing appropriate regulatory tools.

The purpose of the study is to identify the main conditions that ensure the influence of science on innovation, especially in terms of technological innovation. Comparative and structural analysis, application of measurement procedures, and evaluation of empirical data constitute the methodology of the study. The results of the study can be reduced to a number of provisions confirmed by analysis. Firstly, in Russia, in the course of permanent reorganizations, the institutional, informational, funding, and even personnel potential (due to a reduction in the number of researchers) was greatly weakened. Thus, the impact of scientific knowledge on the innovation process was clearly reduced, although the thesis that innovations are always results of scientific activities is difficult to dispute. Secondly, we should not talk about it as a direct relationship, but through the time lags. It is they who become a stumbling block in the conducting and planning current scientific and technological policy. Thirdly, the author has showed the main problems of technological innovation in Russia, identified in the course of many years of author’s research, supporting the important conclusion about the lack of an accurate representation and measurement of the level of technological effectiveness of the economy. The author has also proposed to solve this problem by detailing and improving accounting and statistical procedures in the field of technology, e. g., by means of technological maps, as well as by introducing an indicator as technology coverage of relevant objects (enterprises, regions, etc.). The current piece measurement of technologies does not consider coverage. Such an omission causes a significant distortion in the assessment of the technological level, as well as in further studies of the relationship between basic science, R&D, and technological development.

The article discusses the impact of the goals chosen by the state for its scientific and technical sphere considering the concept of scientific priorities. The approaches used in the USSR to the formation and implementation of scientific priorities made it possible to solve a number of strategic national economic problems in a short time. The author has investigated modern approaches to the formation and implementation of priority directions for the development of science, as well as assessing the effectiveness of research activities. The analysis showed inadequacy of assessing the activities of scientific organizations on the basis of publication and citation indicators.

The article relates to the formation of an original approach to the creation of a monitoring system for the scientific and technological sphere based on expert methods and ranking. The relevance of the topic is confirmed by the formation in the Russian Federation of a number of local monitoring subsystems that are difficult to connect with each other and do not provide in the aggregate the completeness of coverage of the scope of scientific research, development and technological work. The core element of this approach is the creation of a subsystem for monitoring scientific and technological results, evaluated by experts and organizations – recognized authorities in this field of science. The work of all other subsystems associated with the actors of scientific and technological activities, researchers, including experts, branches of science, regions of its placement, scientific journals, etc. is based on data samples presented in the central subsystem of positively evaluated scientific and technological results. The article also shows that such a system can provide not only the comparability of data from all subsystems of the R&D monitoring system, but also its completeness, transparency and resistance to voluntary and involuntary distortions. The proposed approach makes it possible to systematize attempts to digitalize the R&D sphere to ensure its full monitoring, as well as to increase the efficiency of each of its components.