Recent trends in innovation policy place growing emphasis on demandside policies and instruments. A number of OECD countries, from the United Kingdom to Finland, Spain and Japan, as well as the European Commission, have made explicit policy statements on the need to give greater importance to demand-side innovation policies. Japan, for example, has recently re-oriented its innovation strategy towards a series of demandoriented national goals such as the transition to a low-carbon economy and tackling the challenges of an ageing society. Finland has adopted a general plan for demand-side innovation – The Finnish Policy Framework and Action Plan for Demand and User-Driven Innovation Policy (2010). And the United Kingdom’s plan, Innovation Nation (2008), introduced demand-side initiatives affecting public procurement and regulation. Spain is currently implementing the State Innovation Strategy (2010) which has a programme oriented towards public procurement. Demand-side innovation policies are now increasingly integrated in the full portfolio of government policies on innovation in a number of OECD countries.