According to the Higher School of Economics, over the past 20 years, Russia's place in gross expenditure on scientific investment has not changed. In terms of the amount of such budget expenditures, the country occupies the tenth position in the rating, on the first places of which - the USA, China and Japan. In terms of relative spending on science - in percentage of GDP, Russia is still lower, in 35th place.

Russia occupies the tenth place in the world in terms of the amount of budgetary expenditures for scientific investments, experts of the Higher School of Economics came to this conclusion, estimating the expenses of the Russian Federation and other countries for 2016. Last year, the Russian budget for research and development (R & D) reached 943.8 billion rubles, or $ 37.3 billion, at purchasing power parity. The US is ranked first ($ 502.9 billion), followed by China ($ 408.8 billion) and Japan ($ 170 billion). Also in the top ten of the rating (except Russia) are Germany ($ 114.8 billion), South Korea ($ 74.1 billion), France ($ 60.8 billion), India ($ 50.3 billion), Great Britain ($ 46.3 billion) and Brazil ($ 38.4 billion).

According to these data, since 1995, Russia's positions on the level of costs for IR have not changed. The most significant improvement in its position in the ranking of China, rising from seventh to second place due to the annual increase in costs of R & D by an average of 16.7%. Japan in turn shifted from second to third place, and Germany - from third to fourth. At the same time, Italy and Canada moved from the first to the second ten (12th and 13th places, respectively).

As noted in the report, the trend of the dynamics of costs for R & D in Russia in the last two decades coincides with the trends typical for the leading economies of the world. While in Russia spending on science increased by 2.6 times in 1995-2016 (at constant prices), the total cost of R & D in OECD countries increased 1.9 times over the same period, in the EU - 1.8 times times. At the same time, in a number of countries, including fast-growing economies, expenditures grew faster. For example, China increased costs for the same period by 21.9 times, South Korea - by 4.5 times. Israel - in 3.7 times.

On a relative rather than absolute basis - the share of science expenditures in GDP - Russia (with 1.1% of GDP) lags behind the developed countries more significantly. According to this indicator, Russia is on the 35th place in the world. The top five are Israel (4.25%), South Korea (4.23%), Switzerland (3.42%), Japan (3.29%) and Sweden (3.28%). The US and China, which are leading in terms of the volume of domestic expenditure on R & D, occupy the 11th and 18th places (2.79 and 2.07% respectively) according to their share in GDP.

Let us note that the HSE study once again shows that neither gross nor per capita indicators of expenditure on IR alone provide any state with results that can be assessed as "leading positions in world science". As such an indicator, the figures of accumulated investments in R & D for long periods, for decades, could be the most likely indicator - this circumstance explains well, for example, the leading positions of British scientists spending comparable to RF funds for MI both per capita and gross measurement. However, in the popular in Russia meme "British scientists", probably, to some extent reflected in the limited in recent years in comparison with the US funding for British academic science.