Many countries consider regional clusters as drivers for economic growth and an efficient tool for interaction between actors of a regional innovation system. Numerous financial and non-financial mechanisms of government support are aimed at making these clusters self-sustainable. However the emergence and outlook of a cluster largely depend on a range of basic conditions, so there is always a risk that without government support, the cluster will not be able to shift to the desired trajectory. The paper analyses Russian experience in supporting pilot innovative regional clusters and suggests indicators of their sustainability.

L ess than a decade since its official introduction, smart specialization, which guides the selection of priorities for innovative development, has proven to be a farreaching academic idea and political instrument. In the European Union, smart specialization is mentioned among the ex ante conditions for receiving subsidies from European structural and investment funds. Its core principles are considered in innovation strategies in Australia, South Korea, and some countries of Latin America. In Russia, smart specialization is also being introduced in the agenda of policymakers. The paper seeks to reveal which levels of governance should be involved in the design of a smart specialization

Ключевые слова активное развитие производственных кла-стеров во многих странах обусловлено ши-рокими возможностями для экономического роста и положительными мультипликацион-ными эффектами. В международной прак-тике формирование кластерной стратегии рассматривается как важнейшая составляю-щая инновационной политики, демонстри-рующая взвешенный долгосрочный подход государства к комплексному освоению тер-риторий. сопоставляя лучший зарубежный и отече-ственный опыт, авторы выявляют и обо-сновывают ключевые факторы успеха кластерной политики в россии.кластер; кластерная политика; инновационная политика; государственные программы; взаимодействие стейкхолдеров; инновационное развитие.Адрес: Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики», 101000, Москва, Мясницкая ул., 20.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Cluster policy is recognized as one of the pivotal elements of state-of-art innovation policy. State support for clusters helps to take into account regional peculiarities and engage the most innovative local actors into the process of innovation policy drafting and implementation. Cluster development stimulates trust building and enhances knowledge spillovers among different organizations in the region. Finally the cluster approach makes innovation policy more systemic by coordinating measures aimed to support different actors (large companies, SMEs, universities, venture funds) towards comprehensive efforts linking the most perspective localized industries (ecosystems). The development of clusters has been determined as one of the priorities of the Strategy of Innovative Development of the Russian Federation for the period to 2020 which was confirmed end 2010. In the framework of this Strategy the first national cluster program was launched in 2012. The paper is devoted to the detailed description of the background of the national cluster program in Russia and its first phase -the selection of the pilot innovative clusters -which was implemented last year. Special attention is given to the comparison of planned design of the Russian cluster program with such widely known cluster programs as the BioRegio, InnoRegio and Les pôles de compétitivité. The similarities and peculiarities of the Russian program have been defined that allowed to identify several most significant areas for improvement. Terms of use: Documents in

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