Improving the Legal Regulation of Monitoring the Activities of the State Scientific Centers of the Russian Federation: Problems of Regulatory Certainty of Evaluation Criteria

Relevance. The relevance of this study is determined by the need to enhance the legal certainty of monitoring the activities of the State Scientific Centers of the Russian Federation, since the current regulatory framework does not fully establish the system of evaluation criteria, the procedure for their application, or the legal consequences of monitoring results. This creates risks of inconsistent law enforcement and necessitates further improvement of the regulatory and methodological framework for evaluating the activities of the State Scientific Centers of the Russian Federation.

Objective. The objective of the study is to identify problems related to the regulatory certainty of the criteria used for monitoring the activities of the State Scientific Centers of the Russian Federation and to substantiate the need to improve the legal regulation of the system for evaluating their activities.

Methodology. The study is based on an analysis of regulatory legal acts and methodological documents governing the monitoring of the activities of the State Scientific Centers of the Russian Federation, as well as scientific and analytical sources addressing the evaluation of the performance of State Scientific Centers. The formal legal, comparative legal, and systems approaches were applied.

Results. The study revealed that the current legal regulation of monitoring the activities of the State Scientific Centers of the Russian Federation primarily establishes procedural aspects of evaluation, whereas the system of substantive indicators O1–O11, the methods for calculating them, and the procedure for interpreting the results have not been sufficiently formalized in regulatory terms. It was established that the use of the Methodological Recommendations as the principal source for determining evaluation criteria creates risks of legal uncertainty, divergent interpretations of indicators, and an expansion of the discretion of the authorities involved in the monitoring process. Possible areas for improving the regulatory framework were substantiated, including the formal regulatory establishment of the list of indicators and the methods for calculating them, as well as the distinction between mandatory and analytical evaluation criteria.

Conclusions. The article demonstrates the need to refine the regulatory and methodological framework for monitoring the activities of the State Scientific Centers of the Russian Federation. It is shown that, while preserving the role of the Methodological Recommendations as an instrument for detailing and standardizing reporting, the key evaluation criteria capable of affecting the retention or termination of the status of a State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation should be properly established in regulatory legal acts. This would enhance the transparency, comparability, and predictability of the monitoring process and reduce the risks of inconsistent law enforcement.

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