The article presents the analysis of socio-economic and political factors determining countries’ competitiveness in the modern postindustrial world. The authors emphasize that countries’ successful development depends on scientific-technical and innovation policy implemented by their governments, which should be based on understanding the unity and deep interactions between the laws of nature and laws of socio-economic life by means of technological progress and the needs of human development. The principal novelty of this unity is that it is considered in the article as the subject of investigating the specific type of modern interdisciplinary interactions, as a manifestation of the new type of rationality, as a radical change in the relationship between government, society and business.
Innovation policy in Russia (within the mentioned tasks) is implemented at two levels: the Federal and regional ones. At the Federal level, the problems are solved according to the national policy of country’s socio-economic development. At the same time the powers aimed at performing the above-mentioned tasks are transferred to the regions in terms of their relatively independent socio-economic competencies and efficient innovative activities taking into account peculiarities of particular regions in the fields of science, education, economic and industrial resources. Fulfilling new complex socio-economic demands is inextricably linked with the activities of flagship universities. The flagship university is a new educational component in the system of interaction between government, science and industry. Recent developments have heightened the need for investigating basic functional characteristics of flagship universities, however, the problem has not received proper coverage in research publications.
The purpose of this article is to provide a conceptual theoretical analyses of the functioning of flagship universities, and to identify the key approaches to integration and interaction between science, education, industry and socio-economic life of the region.
The article considers the characteristics of socio-economic developments in post-industrial countries and the principles of cooperation between government, education, science and production. The author reveals favorable conditions for achieving innovative outcomes in the organization of the education system and science aimed at strengthening the competitive capacity of the country. Special attention is paid to the difficulties of modernization in Russia, which can be overcome only by creating a fundamentally new system of education conforming to integrative directions in interaction between government, science and economy.
In conclusion, the authors formulate functional characteristics within innovative activities of flagship universities and specific directions of their integration.