Russia closed the top ten leading countries in terms of the amount of domestic expenditure on research and development (R & D) in terms of purchasing power parity. According to the number of researchers, the country occupies the fourth place in the world at all, but in terms of specific R & D expenditures and their contribution to GDP remains in the third and fourth dozen of the world rating. The research of the Higher School of Economics, which fixes this provision, can serve as an explanation of one of the target indicators of the national project "Science", discussed in the White House, which assumes spending up to 2024 1 trillion rubles. on scientific research.

According to the estimates of the HSE analysts, Russia has ranked 10th in the world in terms of R & D expenditures, in 2016 it was $ 39.9 billion. The US tops the rating with the index of $ 511 billion, China ($ 451.2 billion) and Japan ($ 168.6 billion) . The share of spending on science in Russia's GDP was 1.1% (34th in the world), which is significantly lower than in the leading countries - Israel, South Korea, Switzerland and Sweden, where it is 3-4%. The United States and China, which have the largest volume of domestic R & D expenditures, occupy the 11th and 15th places (2.74% and 2.12% respectively) in terms of their share in GDP. The recent monitoring of government spending on science, the main source of funding for R & D in Russia, recorded their decline after 2013, and the forecast for 2019-2020 also suggests a slight decrease.

Russia remains one of the world leaders in terms of employment in science. So, in 2016, the number of researchers in the country amounted to 428.9 thousand people, it is higher only in China (1.69 million), the United States (1.38 million) and Japan (665,000). Relative indicators also record a significant lag of the Russian Federation from competitors: in terms of the number of researchers per 10,000 workers, it occupies only 34th place (60 against, for example, 144 in Sweden and 138 in Korea). An explanation of this state of things can serve as an indicator of domestic expenditure on research and development per researcher ($ 93 thousand) - the Russian Federation occupies only 47th place on it. In leaders - multiply superior to Russia Switzerland ($ 406.7 thousand) and the United States ($ 359.9 thousand). In China, where the largest number of researchers are involved, this figure is also three times higher than Russia's - $ 266.6 thousand (eighth place). What is happening is sufficiently explained by the reproduction of the structures of the Soviet planned economy-based on the available data, it is impossible to say what is the share of researchers in Russia for which the volumes of R & D financing realized are comparable with the average indicators in the world leaders. Indirect data suggest that this group is very compact, and the share of researchers whose funding is minimal in Russia is disproportionately high in comparison with other countries and, apparently, is close in proportion to the Chinese.

It should be noted that the increase in the number of scientists-researchers is one of the goals of the national project "Science" (see "Kommersant" on July 17). The government proposes to increase its number to 79 per 10 thousand employees due to it and is ready to spend on it up to 1 trillion rubles. state funds until 2024. Obviously, this strategy assumes that there should not be a significant increase in private investment in research in the Russian economy in the coming years.