It then considers the public funding of R&D, specifically the overall trends in budgetary support, the main funding patterns by institutional type, and the use of selectivity and priority programmes. This is followed by a functional assessment of Russia’s innovation policy that takes a number of strategic tasks as its starting points. These include securing the availability of qualified human resources, adapting public R&D institutes to the requirements of a modern innovation system, promoting business R&D and innovation, fostering the development of competitive innovation-oriented industries, providing supporting infrastructure to innovators, harnessing global opportunities through international co-operation, and developing and mobilising regional innovation capabilities.