The Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe (CAIRNE) is an international non-profit association (AISBL) created by the European AI community that seeks to strengthen European excellence in AI research and innovation, with a strong focus on human-centred AI.

CAIRNE does not provide AI services or products, but rather represents the interests of its members by promoting European AI through media channels and events, fostering cross-border collaborations, and participating in EU Horizon calls to facilitate community building.

CAIRNE was publicly launched as CLAIRE on 18 June 2018 with a vision document signed by 600 senior researchers and key stakeholders in artificial intelligence, inviting stakeholders in artificial intelligence across Europe (and beyond) to sign their support. Officially incorporated as an international non-profit association according to Belgium law on January 31 2020, CAIRNE has since attracted major media coverage in many European countries and garnered broad support by more than 1000 AI experts (PhD-level expertise in AI or equivalent), more than one hundred fellows of various scientific AI associations, many editors of scientific AI journals, national AI societies, top AI institutes and key stakeholders in industry and other organisations. 

The initiative was prompted in part by a letter of intent, signed by 25 European countries on 10 April 2018, to increase their efforts on strengthening research, innovation and collaboration on AI, a subsequent Communication from the Commission on 25 April with a preliminary AI strategy; it was also inspired by an earlier call for establishing a European laboratory to promote excellence in machine learning, known as ELLIS.

After 5 years of using the acronym CLAIRE undisputedly, we were recently made aware that the acronym CLAIRE was trademarked. Based on advice from our lawyers, we have decided to change the acronym to CAIRN (pronounced “kern”). Our official full legal name – Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe AISBL – remains unchanged, as does our core mission and support to members.

CAIRNE aims to establish a world-wide brand recognition for “AI made in Europe” (at the level of CERN), and to position Europe in control of its own future. CAIRNE was launched in June 2018 and now has the support of more than 4,000 people, most of them scientists, technologists, and researchers in Artificial Intelligence. The supporters represent the vast majority of Europe’s AI community, spanning academia and industry, research and innovation. Among the supporters are more than 140 fellows from various key scientific associations.

CAIRNE has opened administrative offices in The Hague, Saarbrücken, Prague, Rome, Brussels, Oslo, Paris and Zürich. CAIRNE’S Research Network consists of over 400 research groups and research institutions, covering jointly more than 24,000 employees in 37 countries. In addition, CAIRNE is developing an Innovation Network, in order to foster close links between non-profit research and impactful industrial applications.

The CLAIRE (now CAIRNE) Vision for excellence in European AI has received official letters of support from the governments of nine European countries, from over 30 scientific associations across all of Europe, from the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI, which is the key European association for AI researchers), from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI, the key international association for AI), and from the European Space Agency (ESA). CAIRNE is also actively liaising, on an ongoing basis, with other important organisations, including ELLIS, the HumanE AI consortium, the Big Data Value Association, euRobotics and AI4EU, and cooperates closely with ESA.