Regioning mission-oriented innovation policy: The articulation of directionality between federal and regional arenas in the German High-Tech Strategy

Mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIP) do not operate in a vacuum. How missions align with innovation actors, infrastructures and discourses in regional contexts is an ongoing discussion. In this paper, we draw on the case of regional dialogues that aspired to facilitate exchange and learning for the missions of Germany's High-Tech Strategy (HTS). We examine the interactional process of 'regioning' MOIP that draws in diverse publics and concerns, ultimately aiming to create institutional arenas where actors from different levels and scales come together to make sense of missions. More than being explicit objects of innovation policy, regions understood through regioning are an implicit practice of policy. By moving missions between federal and regional arenas, involved actors shape a political space for articulating the directionality of innovation policy.