Motives of inventive activity in higher education

Abstract

The paper discusses issues related to the motivation of inventive activity in higher education. To identify the main motives of inventive activity, a survey was conducted among scientists of Kazan State University. The survey was attended by 25 respondents from among the most inventively active scientists of the university institutes with a larger number of patents for inventions. During the period from 2018 to 2022, the Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology, the Institute of Geology and Oil and Gas Technologies, the Engineering Institute and the Institute of Physics showed the greatest inventive activity. It is in these areas of science that fundamental and applied research and development are carried out, which are identified at the university as priority and promising. The results of the survey showed that among the factors contributing to inventive activity, the main one is internal motivation (70,8 % of respondents’ responses), which includes, among other things, material incentives for inventors (64 %) and determined the respondents’ desire to provide a material and legal basis for stimulating (moral and material) the author – creator of the intellectual property object (52 %). Factors hindering creative activity were named: lack of time for inventive activity (47,8 %); non-implementation of developments (30,4 % of respondents); problems related to the organization of business, its financing and marketing (all 32 %).