Exploration and exploitation in energy RD&D budget allocation: an international comparison

Abstract

For policymakers RD&D portfolio management is thus a problem of exploration and exploitation, of striking a balance between allocating funds to the further development of existing technological options or to the search for potentially successful future technological options. This balance between exploration and exploitation is the topic of the current paper. The allocation decision for an individual nation state depends both on existing national capacities and on international developments. Policy evaluation exercises, be they ex ante, in process, or ex post, are an important input to such budget allocation decisions.