The article is devoted to the study of the influence of economic structure on the index of science and technology development in the context of the constitute entities of the Russian Federation. For this purpose, we conducted a cluster analysis using economic and mathematical methods, which made it possible to identify regions with similar characteristics of science and technology development. The calculations were based on regular statistical data provided by Rosstat, the Ministry of Education and Science, as well as the information catalog on the state of innovation infrastructure of scientific and technological activities in the regions of the Russian Federation (MIIRIS) for 2021. The relevance of the research is caused by the fact that the issue of stimulating science and technology development as a basis for achieving technological sovereignty, taking into account regional specifics, has become especially important nowadays. The novelty of the work is our methodology for calculating science and technology development index, including indicators describing the development of IT infrastructure and business digitalization. This aspect is particularly relevant, since the literature does not pay enough attention to the issues of the science and technology development in the regional context. In this paper, we used mathematical modeling methods, in particular, two-level cluster analysis, which allowed identifying, at the first stage, groups of regions with a similar level of science and technology development, and then to analyze the impact of the industrial structure of production on this level among the regions that make up the bulk. The study revealed that three quarters of Russia’s regions have a very low index of science and technology development. The overall development of regional economies gives higher S&T development. Regions with a higher share of manufacturing industries have a higher S&T development index. The use of digital infrastructure is one of the weaknesses of regions with a low S&T development index
Keywords
regional development, science and technology development, comparative analysis, digital economy