Dialogue to Direction: Shaping the CLAIR Research Agenda

Day 3 of CLAIR opens with a forward-looking dialogue between Niklas Blomberg and Ilias Iakovidis, moderated by Mats Sundgren.

If the first two days have examined how artificial intelligence reshapes research-intensive work, this session asks the more demanding question:

• How should these insights translate into structured direction and shared priorities?
• Why does CLAIR need a Research Agenda and how can it move beyond conference conclusions to influence real collaboration models, funding instruments, and research strategy?
• If AI is transforming the scientific and engineering method, how should evaluation criteria and public–private partnerships evolve?
• If accountability in algorithmic environments is becoming more complex, what governance research should be prioritized?
• If critical thinking and creativity risk being overshadowed by optimization, what new research questions must be articulated?
• And if organizational transformation in R&D is inevitable, how can industry become an active architect of research direction rather than a passive beneficiary?

Drawing on leadership experience in European public–private research frameworks and AI policy, Blomberg and Iakovidis will explore how the CLAIR Research Agenda can inform future collaboration models and contribute to AI research priorities in Europe and beyond. This opening dialogue is designed to be catalytic and motivational positioning Day 3 not as a closing workshop,
but as a strategic inflection point where dialogue becomes direction and shared responsibility becomes structured action.

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