The Austrian Innovation and Technology Fund: Between Power Play and Policy Learning

Abstract: This paper analyses the slow institutionalisation of the Austrian technology policy. It concentrates on the years between 1987 and 2002, between the creation and the dissolution of the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF). For the analysisof the ITF's history not only classical social science categories such as interests and power are considered, but also a policy learning perspective is employed. Questions raised extend to the existence and nature of experiential learning in the creation and the reforms of the ITF, the usage of policy instruments to gather experience and knowledge, changes in the use of knowledge of policy actors and the role of national and international role models.;