One of the key aspects that determine the socio-economic development of the state and ensure its leading position on the world stage is the level of development of the country’s scientific and technological activities. Science and technology seem to be the main driver of ensuring competitiveness, national security, and social well-being of the population. This necessitates the formation of a modern effective system for organizing scientific and technological activities (STA), building mechanisms for interaction between the processes of conducting research and creating developments, as well as their prompt implementation in large-scale production on economically advantageous terms. Currently in Russia, special attention in scientific, technical and industrial policy is focused on ensuring state technological sovereignty. The most important aspect of the development of scientific and technological activity is the system of its financing, which includes federal and regional mechanisms for stimulating scientific and technological development. The purpose of the study is to propose an improvement in the mechanism for financing scientific and technical work in the region using the example of the Vologda region. The developed systematization of funding sources is presented in the context of the “life” cycle of innovation from the emergence of an idea to the creation of mass production of products in accordance with the stage of technological readiness on a scale of technology readiness levels. As a result of the study, problems existing in the Vologda region in the field of financing scientific and technological development were identified; a variant of their solution has been proposed; based on the calculations carried out, the economic efficiency of the proposed changes has been proven. Thus, a promising option for solving the problem of improving the mechanism for providing financial support for the development of scientific and technological activities in the Vologda region seems to be the reorientation of regional funding programs - a shift within the framework of the UGT scale from financing scientific and technological activities corresponding to levels 1-5 of technological readiness to a higher level (UGT 6 and higher). This will create new jobs in the region, as well as increase tax revenues to the budget of the Vologda region