PRIORITY AREAS OF UKRAINE’S INNOVATIVE POTENTIAL IN THE CONDITIONS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.

Given the complexity of the global epidemiological situation, the struggle for the competitiveness of national economies is exacerbated. For Ukraine, whose economy has now taken the form of deindustrialization, the intensification of innovation is a necessary, extremely important condition for its further development. It was previously thought that the socio-economic development and growth of countries depended mainly on their capital and labor resources, while other lesstangible resources, such as information, training, infrastructure development were treated as external factors influencing market behavior only indirectly. However, overtime, the idea that knowledge management is a determining factor in productivity in both modern and traditional economies is becoming increasingly entrenched. The paper proposes results of the research of Ukraine’s positioning in the global innovation space. It also determines the necessity of priority development of the innovative sphere of the country against the backdrop of crisis phenomena and assesses the position of Ukraine in the Indices characterizing the level of development of the innovative component of the competitiveness of the country’s economy. It underlines the insufficient level of innovation infrastructure development in the country. The authors consider that the basis of Ukrainian innovative competitiveness is the development of institutions, infrastructure and business. These areas need special state support, as their effective implementation is the main competitive advantage of Ukraine. The research was conducted according to the Global Innovation Index sub-indices on the horizon of 2013—2021. Econometric methods are used to generalize the positioning of Ukraine in the global innovation space and the DEA method to study the relative individual effectiveness of the innovation environment and innovation activities in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]