Introduction. World-class scientific and educational centers (REC MU) are considered as special social organizations that form one of the promising social institutions in Russia. REC MU are becoming one of the real opportunities to achieve a synergistic effect in the formation of human capital. They are regarded as analogues of think tanks that are dynamically operating in the West and are gaining strength in the countries of the East. The purpose of the article lies in a sociological analysis of the activities of the REC MU and the identification of the prospects for their development as drivers for the formation of the human capital of Russians on the basis of turning to values and motivations, supporting creative and talented Russian youth.

Methodology and sources. The methodological basis of the study was formed by the principles of analysis of social institutionalization, which allow studying the activities of the REC MU as an emerging new social institution with its own rules, norms, reflection and self-regulation. Another part of the methodological principles concerns the consideration of human capital as associated with the value-motivational attitudes of the individual. The empirical base was made up of data from the open press on the structure of activity and the problems of activity, the results of the author's empirical research and expert interviews with the leaders of the REC MU.

Results and discussion. The first result is to fix and analyze the directions and orientations of the activities of the REC MU, which at the normative level form a common system of routes and strategies for their development. The data of this analysis were obtained as a result of the study of publications. The second result of the study fixes the vectors of the reversal of the activities of the REC MU in the direction of the formation of the human capital of Russians in the regions where the REC MU have been created. The data of this result were obtained as a result of summarizing the materials of the author's empirical study of one of the operating universities included in the REC MU. Another result of the study, obtained as a result of expert interviews with leaders and managers of 12 REC MU, shows the problematic field of the institutionalization of these centers.

Conclusion. REC MU as a specific social institution are going through the stage of their formation. As for the activation of the human capital of the regions, this will require additional efforts and potentials, the development and implementation of modern methodologies and technologies for educational activities and information work, in particular, with student youth. The existing gap between value-motivational structures and their exclusion from the system of analysis of human capital is scientifically untenable, but in a practical sense it negatively affects real activity.