Nikita I. Fomin

The relevance of the research is explained by the urgent need to intensify the universities’ innovative activity to solve the problems of the country technological development, the basis of which is the development of inventions in engineering field. The purpose of the article is to examine the characteristics of engineering inventive activity that currently exists in university practice and to identify the potentials for its intensive development. The research used methods of studying information sources, content analysis, expert assessments, written survey, interview, statistical and system analysis. The main empirical data were obtained during a survey and content analysis of interviews with experts, who were experienced university inventors and had a large number of patents and certificates of authorship. The article discusses the well-known concepts and models of inventive activity. Based on the obtained empirical data, the authors built a model of inventive activity for modern university specialists. Comparative analysis of this model and the well-known algorithm for solving inventive problems (ARIZ) by G.S. Altshuller made it possible to determine the characteristics of the structure and content of the inventive activity of university staff (teachers and researchers), as well as its limitations. The scientific novelty of the work lies in determining the specific features and disadvantages of university inventive activity and identifying opportunities to increase its activity and effectiveness. The hypothesis is substantiated and confirmed that there is a gap between conceptual and methodological achievements in the field of inventive creativity and the instrumental and methodological arsenal used by university inventors. The results of the research allow us to conclude that there is a potential for improving university inventive activity, which can be realized by enriching the instrumental and methodological arsenal, expanding and strengthening the range of motivating factors, as well as creating special mechanisms and services for the active involvement of young and experienced researchers in the inventive process.