Interaction of Educational and Innovation Clusters in Order to Improve the Innovation Security of the Western Border Regions of Russia

The article examines the current trend of mutual clustering of education and innovative production sectors in Russia. The study focuses on the western border regions of Russia as the most problematic regions affected by the geo-economic turbulence in the Russia-West system after 2014, which caused the need for import substitution in the innovation sector, while the entire national education system is in the process of reforming, developing and the introduction of new technologies and digitalization. Statistical analysis is carried out for both educational and innovation spheres in order to identify the dynamics of the organizational space, work results and technologies used in the process. The study also provides a qualitative analysis of clustering, including general, the formation of educational clusters and the inclusion of educational organizations in the structure of non-educational clusters. The results of the study revealed both general trends for all considered regions, and exceptions. The independence between the shrinking organizational sector and the unstable dynamics of innovation reflect the weak linkages between the two sectors and the formal nature of cross-clustering in many cases. But the impulse of import substitution has caused a new wave of clustering, and the largest universities have become “condensation nuclei” of regional innovative business. The results of this trend are likely to become apparent after the lag period. Keywords—innovation cluster, educational cluster, Western border regions of Russia, self-organizing clustering, innovation