Short abstract:

This contribution investigates how organised scientific interests shape infrastructure policy in the European Union.

Long abstract:

How do organised scientific interests shape the agenda of science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy in the European Union (EU)? I address this question by investigating how the so-called “CERN for Artificial Intelligence (AI)” initiative, a proposal to organize Europe’s AI research in a CERN-like ecosystem, made it onto the agenda of EU policymakers. Drawing on the interest group as well as agenda-setting scholarship and triangulating data from multiple sources, I argue that the Confederation of Laboratories for AI Research in Europe (CLAIRE), a scientific interest group, pushed the initiative onto the EU’s informal policy agenda through direct and indirect lobbying. I also demonstrate that the CERN for AI has so far failed to enter Brussel’s formal agenda because of turf battles between organized scientific interests, the lacking experience, resources, and time of its advocates, the historical fragmentation of EU AI research policy and funding as well as the initiative’s framing. My findings add to the study of STI policymaking in the EU, which has so far almost exclusively focused on individual policymakers, bureaucrats, or political institutions as policy entrepreneurs while neglecting to study the role of organised scientific interests in STI policy agenda-setting.