Abstract:
In times of multiple crises such as climate change or global pandemics, science, technology, and innovation (STI) are expected to contribute to solving these grand challenges of humankind. Regarding the related policies, we observably entered an era of strategy that started in the mid-2000s. Nation states set up large-scale policy strategies (e.g. Germany's Hightech Strategy 2025, UK's Innovation and Research strategy for growth) to support innovation-related research and development activities, which were supposed to generate solutions for existential problems. But how do individual policy practitioners perceive this development and how does it alter their practical work? This contribution focuses on the perception and practice of individual policy practitioners from formulators at ministries to implementers at agencies in Germany, Sweden, and the UK via a contextualised empirical investigation (including the qualitative analyses of 53 guideline-led interviews).