The paper outlines system capabilities of Russia to join the scientific and technological leaders through changes in the staff policy in the science field, which was the purpose of the research.The subject of the research is institutional changes occurring in science and, particularly, staff training. The status of the Russian science is assessed in terms of changes in the basic rules and their adjustment with an emphasis on material and non-material incentives, staff rotation and training of young scientists. The paper proves that the frequency and content of institutional changes affect the quality of the scientific development and the training of scientific staff; moreover, copying the rules already in use reduces the competitive potential of science. From the scientific and practical standpoint, the research is novel in that it formulates proposals for establishing a labor compensation system and introduction of basic institutions (rules) to ensure the functioning of the scientific sphere and the efficiency of functions immanent to the latter. The paper proposes a “scientific product” doctrine that can be used for assessment of a scientist’s labor, according to which the scientist creates a product that is assessed not by the citation frequency or the number of published articles and books but by the importance of discoveries in theory and practice, the significance of new formulas and methods developed. It is suggested that the scientist’s labor compensation system be presented by two levels: the current salary and the estimated value of the total scientific product created. The problem of scientific work incentives can be solved by introducing a special tariffqualification grid tied to the system of the scientist’s promotion.