The Study of critical realism’s implications in agenda setting of science, technology and innovation policy making; the case study of horizon 2020 and the European bioeconomy in 2030

The philosophical implication-research is one of common research traditions in social sciences. In this methodology, researchers find implications from different philosophies of social sciences for their professional and specialized disciplines. One of the new philosophies that have been considered by different disciplines of social and human sciences due to its explanatory and emancipatory power is Critical Realism (CR). The aim of this research is extracting the implications of this epistemological approach or research tradition for science, technology and innovation policymaking, however the main focus of it is on the stage of agenda setting in policymaking's cycle. This study relying to Roy Bhaskar's critical realism have analyzed two policy documents: horizon 2020 and the European bioeconomy in 2030. The collection of extracted implications indicated that critical realism leads the science, technology and innovation policymaking's system to the more realistic space and adds the important elements such as space-time, concept-action, and Systems of meaning to decision variables. The last elements along the language communities in comparison with other research traditions have better explanatory power of policymaking in sectoral and technological innovation system