Финансовый журнал (Feb 2020)
Organization of Program- and Target-Oriented Funding for Research in Russia
Abstract
The relevance of the topic is justified by the fact that program- and target-oriented management methods have become an essential part of modern public finance. They contribute to the implementation of one of the key principles in this area, namely the principle of socio-economic efficiency of expenditures. At the same time, the practice of program- and target-oriented financing is currently evolving, and its final, stable forms have not yet developed. There are a number of serious difficulties in the implementation of program–target methods, in particular those related to the problems of applying formalized procedures for constructing a hierarchy of goals, tasks, and activities as well as linking resource needs to them. With program- and target-oriented funding of science, these problems become even more acute due to qualitative heterogeneity of both direct results and social outcomes. The article analyzes the existing organization of targeted funding in the field of scientific research. In particular, the problems of linking priority areas in the development of science and technology in the Russian Federation to program documents are considered. Presented are the findings of the analysis of target indicators and changes in their values as well as budget allocations for civil science under state programs and national projects in the Russian Federation. It is concluded that, in the framework of civil science spending, the program–target method of managing public spending remains largely formal, and that strategic and program documents and statistical monitoring of activities in the field of education, science, innovation and information technologies are not coordinated by goal setting and priority areas. The author suggests applying a tool for reviewing budget expenditures in the field of R&D as one of the efficient ways to assess the effectiveness of state programs.
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