Problems of Reproduction of Research Personnel in the Old Industrial Regions of Donbass and Dnieper to Ensure their Innovative Modernization

The state and dynamics of quantitative and qualitative parameters of research personnel in the old industrial regions of Ukraine – Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye, and Lugansk regions have been analyzed. Negative trends have been identified in all regions: a reduction in employment in research and development, a decrease in the number of researchers; the deterioration in the qualitative composition of human capacity in science which has been reflected in a decrease in the share of researchers with scientific degrees and scientists of a younger age; reducing the volume of training of research personnel in graduate school. The loss of human capacity in science hinders the innovative modernization of regional economies. Particularly negative processes in the field of staffing science occurred in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as a result of the occupation of part of the territory, the movement of some research institutions to other regions and the further decline of their economies. The share of R&D performers in these regions is respectively 0.03% and 0.1% of all employees. It has been concluded that in the regions of Donbass there are practically no internal sources of scientific and technological development currently. The main causes of the loss of human resources capacity of science of the old industrial regions are technological backwardness of their economies, stagnation of innovation and extremely low level of financing scientific research. The conclusion has been drawn on the need for a comprehensive modernization of the socio-economic complex of the old industrial regions, which should be based on interconnected processes of reindustrialization and smart specialization of regional economies and the revival of the research. These require the identification of promising high-tech types of economic activity in the regions and those branches of scientific research that will ensure their support.