The article deals with topical issues of innovation-oriented growth, which form the potential for innovative development and determine the trend of science-intensive development. The main indicators of innovation activity, primarily human capital, scientific knowledge and modern technologies, are studied. The barriers to the development of innovative activities in the field of financial incentives, applied support mechanisms, relative to the resulting indicators are considered. The need to develop human resources and focus on technology progress in order to achieve scientific and technological leadership and innovative sovereignty has identified. The theoretical analysis is carried out based on the study of modern scientific research and expert opinions. Empirical study is conducted using the statistical database of the Rosstat. The calculations included two components. First, the main trends of innovation activity for the period 2010–2022 are identified. Secondly, a model is built and a correlation–regression analysis is performed, which allows us to determine the level of dependence of variables and their influence on the resulting indicator, as well as to draw predictive conclusions. The construction of the computational model enables to prove empirically that the indicators of innovation have a direct relationship with the factors of the development of the science-intensive economy. Based on the conducted research, the authors suppose that an effective vector for the advancement of the science-intensive economy is the transformation of current tools to support innovation activities within the framework of a new strategy of scientific and technological development. Also, it is also important to create an effective model of financial support for the growth of the resulting indicators of innovation activity, which should have a positive impact on achieving technological leadership and socio-economic dynamics in general. The purpose of the study is to determine the directions of innovation-oriented growth and identify factors that influence the formation of a knowledge-based economy. The analysis of the indicators of innovation activity of the Russian Federation is carried out to identify key incentive indicators, a positive change in which will lead to an increase in the innovation index, the volume of innovative goods, advanced technologies and the country's GDP.