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The paper discusses the processes by which local innovation systems develop. Its theme is agenda-setting discourses and the representation of high-tech firms' interests at local and national scales. Using the case study of Oxfordshire, it discusses the relationship between innovation and the development of institutional ensembles. Adopting an historical perspective, it shows how what was a local system has attained greater significance as the political importance of innovation grows in national and regional agendas. To do so, it investigates the plurality of arrangements or coalitions of interests which operate through networks based on The Oxford Trust, a local charitable trust. These networks provide means of co-ordinating resources available to start-up and growing small high-tech firms in Oxfordshire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]