Main Factors Contributing to the Growth of Innovation Potential of the Country

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the key factors contributing to Georgia’s innovative potential and to identify the relevant actions for it. The study was based on the World Bank’s Global Competitiveness Report, Eurostat and Geostat data, author’s findings on innovation management at Archimedes Foundation, INTAS Program, Open Society Foundations, EU Seventh Framework Program (FP7) and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation, as well as papers and practical recommendations of the researchers. On the basis of research, conducted through the holistic approach the following key factors determining the innovative potential of Georgia has been revealed: Necessity of innovation strategy and action plan for raising innovative potential, tight linkage among university science and business, sufficient funding on research, qualitative integration of teaching and research in applied sciences, inevitability of increasing the number of early stage researchers, satisfactory infrastructure and creating comfortable working environment in the organization, focusing doctoral research thesis in applied sciences on the real practical problems and etc.