This panel focuses on the dynamics of political attention and on how rising and falling attention plays a part in the evolution of policy issues – the way they are defined and how they are related to other issues that are part of the same process of competition for attention. Research shows that periods of stability on the political agenda are interrupted by shifts. What policy topics are most sensitive to such shifts? How do linkages play a part? Policy problems move and evolve, but they are not a perpetuum mobile. Participants in this panel present and discuss the process of issue evolution within and across institutional venues, the impact of information capacity (and bottlenecks) within these venues, and their more or less formal jurisdictions relevant to addressing problems. Policy domains may differ in these respect, but as issues travel or are addressed simultaneously, also cross-national differences play apart. These institutional factors are related to actor strategies for expanding or narrowing down the scope of concern.