Abstract
Formation of the quality of Kazakhstan's intellectual vanguard in the context of its regions is currently at the stage of transformations, connected with the quick economic and technological growth.Intellectual vanguard (or intellectual human capital) is the key component of innovative and effective R&D.Its quality is determined by a range of factors, which are manifested differently in the conditions of quickly changing conditions of economy and infrastructure.In the course of this research, we distinguished factors that influence the access to R&D in regions; they lead to the emergence of regional disproportions.These factors are the structure of sources of financing and access of R&D subjects or companies that are interested in innovations to financing; the level of expenditures for improvement of knowledge, personnel skills, and R&D; income of citizens of the regions of Kazakhstan; quality of secondary, vocational, and technical education in regions; and the level of ICT (including Internet quality and coverage).We revealed the structure and specifics of the formation of the intellectual vanguard of Kazakhstan's regions and established the list of the most leading territories and subjects of the country, which, due to technical preconditions, were not able to reach progress in the improvement of the quality of this indicator.We also presented ways to reduce regional gaps in access to R&D through the enhancement of the quality of intellectual human capital, which is possible in the conditions of strategic partnership and interaction between stakeholders.The novelty of this research is due to the development of a categorical apparatus on the considered problems (study of the notion of intellectual vanguard) and substantiation of the ways to eliminate regional inequality in the access to R&D in the context of modelling of influencing factors.