2012: Dynamics of public perception of innovations

The study has confirmed some of the emerging trends of the previous monitoring cycle. Negative assessments of the national science and education system are growing, ie the basic (fundamental) areas for the national innovation system. The prestige of professional scientific activities remains low (the ratio of positive and negative attitudes in the academic careers of their children – 42 to 43%, and among young people 35% to 48%). The prestige of  the teaching profession is very low, although it remains in an upward trend (if in 2003 only 19% of the respondents had positive attitudes, in 2006 the percentage was 21%, in 2009 – 29%, in 2011 – 31%). The prestige of the occupation of programmer (the proportion of positive and negative responses has held steady at the same level since 2003, and in 2011 it was 60 to 25%) and of engineer (53 to 33%) are much higher. The measurement was conducted for the first time in 2011.

In the cognitive aspect, Russians had low interest in scientific and technical topics, and a low level of scientific literacy. In this case, there is an increasing loyalty to the development of many controversial scientific fields, which is contrary to European tendencies, when more than a competent understanding of science is accompanied by a more watchful eye on its distribution. To proceed to the European attitude to science and technology, it is necessary to increase the scientific literacy of Russians.

In the behavioural aspect, Russians continue to be conservative – the time series observations fix low attractiveness to innovative products, especially new foods.

In 2012, the phenomenon of "home innovators" was studied for the first time. In Russia, these individuals may be characterized as "bike reinventors". They represent the well-educated population of the Russian heartland; they are well-informed on new products of science and technology, but in an underdeveloped market (a weak offering of innovative products and their high cost), they opt to make products themselves or to customize them to suit their needs. Although this group is extremely small (less than 4% of the population), it has a high potential for innovation and allows existing problems of "industrial" science to be filled.