This paper presents the results of studies aimed at analyzing the effectiveness of a research center. The study focuses on the process of self-organization of project teams (groups of co-authors) for project implementation (writing a scientific article). The initiative to create a team comes from one of its members. The paper describes a formal model, based on a competence approach, which considers the types of tasks to be solved and the necessary skills of the staff. The paper also presents the results of simulation in the AnyLogic environment and problems for further research.
      The competency profile of each employee is a vector where each coordinate describes the level of mastery of the corresponding skill. The competency profile of the team is a vector obtained as the result of simple addition of the competency profiles of the participants. The proposed model assumes that each task requires a certain set of competencies and that the list of competencies and the level of experience are the criteria for deciding whether to join the team. The logic of decision making at various stages of team creation is modelled by functions. At each step of the modelling, the next employee is chosen randomly. To calibrate the team member’s competency profile, internal data on employee qualifications of the Gazpromneft Research Center was used. The constructed model is the basis for further studies of the process by which project teams are created and function in a scientific environment and for developing a methodology to assess the effectiveness of the work of research teams. It helps to predict the need for personnel with different competencies, plan activities to improve the skills of employees and strengthen communication in the team.