To explore these questions we focus on three programs funded through federal initiatives, all of which act as intermediating agencies (Metcalfe 2004; Slaughter and Rhoades 2004) for the generation and dissemination of knowledge. These agencies are the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Workplace Skills Strategy, and the Canadian Council for Learning. Within each agency, identifiable discourses are at work that shape the production and consumption of knowledge in particular ways. These discourses circulate through multiple interactions and practices, but are also at least partially visible in primary texts associated with these organizations. The texts we have chosen to analyze and compare across programs include, first, their self-descriptions of agency goals, rationale, activities, priorities and intended outcomes. Second, we compare the organizations’ calls for proposals, all of which are intended to influence and direct, though distribution of resources,