Empirical Analysis of Multinational S&T Collaboration Priorities –The Case of Russia

The problem of rationalizing S&T cooperation, including identifying the most promising areas and forms for S&T cooperation (geographical and thematic) and state support instruments, is critically important to many countries. In view of the growing complexity of global trends and domestic restrictions on development and the emergence of new factors affecting contacts with foreign countries, there are increasing demands in the international arena to collect and analyse relevant information required to make substantiated administrative decisions on various levels, including with regard to international S&T collaboration. In these conditions, researchers and experts tend to resort to a broad range of empirical methods, while politicians make more active use of their results in administrative practice and international contacts. This working paper describes and systematizes analysis results in the field of international S&T collaboration based on a bibliometric study. The authors combine quantitative methods of bibliometrics and sociology to identify prospective partners and promising areas for collaboration. In addition, the possibility of using the proposed approach to provide information support for current state policy-making is assessed, and key results of the study are examined