From STI Policy Objectives to Infrastructures

Understanding the Implementation of Directed Challenge-Driven Research Funding

Abstract

Science, technology and innovation (STI) policy is shaped by the policy instruments used. However, we know relatively little about the work practices of policy actors implementing them. This article investigates how policy objectives are translated into governance by drawing on a case study of the implementation of a ‘Strategic Research’ funding instrument in Finland. The instrument is expected to fulfil a plurality of objectives, calling for solutions to various societal challenges through broad collaboration on research themes that require government approval. I examine the articulation work of the policy actors implementing the funding scheme and identify anticipatory tailoring and the repurposing of templates as central dimensions of this work. I show how the translation of policy objectives into a funding instrument expected to satisfy social worlds from politics to science is historically contingent and challenging. The article contributes with empirical detail into how policy actors managed multiple social worlds while implementing the research funding scheme, and the consequences and tensions that ensued.