In many OECD countries, government support shifted towards the promotion of “key”, “pervasive” or “enabling” technologies.1 In the Netherlands, during the second half of the 1980s, “technology policy” was oriented towards supporting emerging fields of technology rather than particular economic sectors (Velzing, 2013). The emphasis was on promoting R&D, other aspects of innovation tended to receive less attention and remained in the background. In its wake a number of new - mostly financial - policy instruments were introduced to foster innovation (grants, fiscal measures, risk capital funds). In 1980, the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), in its report, Industry in the Netherlands: Its Place and Future, advocated specific investments in sectors of current or emerging strengths (Velzing, 2013).