Solution of the urgent problems of rural areas development in Ukraine under conditions of systemic transformations and the introduction of innovations in the sphere of the rural economy requires significant modernization of the entire system of rural development management. The content, main tasks and functions of innovative development strategizing of rural areas as multifunctional systems are disclosed in the paper. The role of the so-called "school of configuration" (according to Mintzberg), which focuses on the content of strategies, the process of their formation and analysis of the life cycle of the control object, is highlighted. The priority value of strategizing of innovative development in the modern conditions at the regional level is emphasized and the specificity of the institutional design of this type of strategizing is analyzed. The function of synthesis of existing potential and new perspectives of local and regional development and the function of generating qualitatively new resources for diversification of rural development are singled out as the key functions of the strategizing of innovative development of rural areas at the regional level. Special attention is paid to the necessity of coordinating the activities of state authorities, local self-government, scientific and educational institutions, business and public organizations to support measures that promote the activation of innovative processes in the region as a whole, and the feasibility of developing a regional strategy for innovative development. It should stipulate the mandatory allocation of separate block devoted to problems of innovative processes stimulation in the rural areas, in the framework of implementation of the "smart specialization" concept in managerial practice based on the idea of shaping development strategies according to the benefits and potential of a specific region. The authors' suggestions on priority directions of stimulation of innovative development of rural areas in Ukraine at the regional level are submitted. 

rural areas, innovative development, strategizing, regional innovation systems, social innovations, smart specialization