Public administration principles of transforming knowledge into public value in the national innovation system of Ukraine

Abstract

The article substantiates the public administration principles of transforming knowledge into public value in the national innovation system of Ukraine. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that under the conditions of war, post-war recovery, European integration, technological modernization and digital transformation, the effectiveness of the national innovation system cannot be assessed only by the number of scientific studies, patents, start-ups, grants or separate elements of innovation infrastructure. Of key importance is the capacity of public administration to ensure the full movement of knowledge from its creation to practical use, scaling, assessment of socially significant results and managerial correction.

It is revealed that the national innovation system of Ukraine should be considered not only as a set of actors involved in innovation activity, but also as a complex institutional environment for the movement of knowledge, within which public authorities, universities, research institutions, business, innovation infrastructure, regions, digital platforms, civil society and international partners interact. It is proved that the mere presence of these actors does not guarantee innovation development unless stable channels of coordination, transfer, financing, analytical support and evaluation of results are formed between them.

It is determined that public value can serve as a criterion for assessing the effectiveness of the national innovation system, since it makes it possible to evaluate not only the fact of knowledge creation or technological development, but also their capacity to ensure technological resilience, defence capability, quality of public services, digital capacity of the state, economic recovery, regional development, energy independence, environmental security and trust in public institutions. The significance of the European logic of knowledge valorisation for updating Ukraine’s innovation policy is substantiated, as it goes beyond narrow commercialization and orients research results toward the creation of economic, social, environmental and administrative value.

The scientific result of the article consists in substantiating that the transformation of knowledge into public value does not require the separation of a new independent conversion-oriented mechanism. It is more appropriate to apply a conversion-oriented principle of coordinating the already existing mechanisms of public administration for the development of the national innovation system: regulatory and legal, institutional, organizational and coordination, financial and instrumental, information and analytical, communication and participatory, control and evaluation, and corrective mechanisms. A managed cycle of transforming knowledge into public value is proposed, covering knowledge creation – selection and prioritization – applied transformation – implementation – scaling – assessment of public value – managerial correction. The practical significance of the results lies in the possibility of their use in improving Ukraine’s innovation policy, forming a system of indicators for assessing the effectiveness of the national innovation system and designing mechanisms of cross-sectoral coordination in the field of innovation development.