Of course, some investment decisions are national in scope, but they require a Swiss style bottom up approach to decision making, I think.
More participative than representative decision making, I think. "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
It is so that the governors of these institutions are academic/political appointments ie representatives. But they are largely there to ensure oversight management of the funding according to government strategy, rather than to be involved in investment funding decisions. We should also remember that a finely balanced consensus coalition (3 main parties at the moment) ensures that long term strategic changes get quite a public airing.
The ascending buzz phrase in Finland is 'Living Labs' - a term for research projects that bring together government, business and academia with the vital 4th component = end users.
In my experience (and I work equally on communications with start-ups and established businesses) the funding is a continuing success story. I am just working with a newly established gaming company eg, that has had Tekes funding to develop a massively multiplayer strategy game. So the scope of investment is wide.
Another example for leisure industries You can't be me, I'm taken
