austrian policymakers have helped create centres of research excellence including through the greenfield founding of the institute for science and technology st austria which was recently included in the nature index of the top universities under years old up to eur million are budgeted for a period of five years at the end of which around researchers in the fields of electronicsbased systems and microelectronics are expected to be employed at silicon austria labs policy makers recognise the transformational importance of digitalisation and through many channels act to accelerate its diffusion there has been considerable experimentation over decades with varied institutional models to support innovation and evaluation of innovation policy instruments is a widespread practice