Governments are increasingly active in setting priorities and targets in a mission-oriented way to ensure that science, technology, and innovation support the achievement of the stated goals. Funding is one of the prominent instruments to steer the research efforts to be aligned with policy objectives.
This study examines to what extent the government's intentions influenced funding and steered research in the desired direction by analyzing government projects and their outcomes in the prioritized technology fields. South Korea's Green Growth mission identified key technologies for green transformation in the industry and promoted research and innovation activities. It led to an increase in funding and the number of publications for targeted green energy technologies during the mission. However, the majority of research outcomes showed unclear relevance with their funded technology fields when topics of papers were investigated. This indicates that the clearly defined goals and strategic orientation of the mission were not necessarily linked to the production of requested knowledge.