After the relatively successful recovery of countries with a strong industry share from the euro / financial crisis (e.g. Germany), a number of advanced nations like the US or UK, but also the European Union, launched programs to strengthen the share of industry in their economy. They address primarily highly innovative industrial and technological areas. In this article, we analyze the role of innovation and technology policy and its instruments in concepts of modern industrial policy and present current insights about its successful integra-tion. The systemic innovation policy contributes substantially to the conception of a modern industrial policy. This is reflected by a modification of the role of policy, the provision of key design principles for public policy and the higher diversification of policy tools. Past examples of biotechnology in the US and the software industry illustrate the combination of innovation policy and industrial policy measures in conjunction with positive distinct context factors led to the successful development of the innovation system and thus the industry. In recent ex-amples of the policy in the European Union, we observe a combination of industrial strength / innovation policy with competition and educational and the increased use of demand-side measures. A deeper understanding of them can help to address new developments such as advanced manufacturing, which are also of high importance for the German industry.