Smart Specialization of Innovative Development of Functional Territories: Strategic Experience and Potential of Ukraine

The article examines the strategic experience of introducing smart specialization in Ukraine using the methods of strategic analysis, financial analysis, generalization, statistics, critical thinking. It has been proved that the state priorities of Ukraine's strategic development have changed. The concept of providing state aid to industries that cannot withstand competition has been changed to the concept of identifying specialized functional areas based on the principles of reasonableness, sustainability and inclusiveness of development, the ability to integrate into value chains of world markets. The above more locally meets the requirements of the competitive environment, minimizes the risks of scattered financing, increases the level of effectiveness of strategic planning, innovative and technological development of the state as a whole. The inconsistency of the state and regional strategic support for the introduction of reasonable specialization was established against the background of determining the effectiveness of the use of such forms of cooperation as the cluster model and cross-functional interaction. The need for standardization and greater regulation of the smart specialization procedure at both the conceptual, methodological and practical levels is determined. Ukrainian smart specialization is constrained by the insufficient potential for the implementation of regional development strategies, the urgent need to adapt the method of assessing smart specialization in the format of entrepreneurial discovery to the Ukrainian realities of types of economic activity, insufficient funding of potential functional territories, low initiative, diversification and self-organization. The delay in the implementation of reasonable specialization of activities in Ukraine is explained by the need for additional time to reconfigure the socio-economic system at all levels and to understand the territorial needs, the prospects of choosing from existing opportunities and its consequences