AbstractThe intensification of technology transfer from state-financed institutions to the economy has been a goal of German policy-makers since the mid-70s. This study shows the problems they have encountered in three such organisations—the universities, the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (FhG) and the big science centres. Political guidance can lead to a reorientation towards academic research in the big science centres, subordination to the industrial research agenda in the universities and an identification with industrial research in FhG.