Precisely six months after launching the CLAIRE initiative for European excellence in human-centred artificial intelligence, we have now begun establishing the actual Confederation of Laboratories for AI Research in Europe (CLAIRE). Over the last 7 days, 117 academic research groups and institutions from 19 European countries have joined the CLAIRE Network,  covering all areas of AI and comprising a total of over 3000 people (see claire-ai.org/network). The members of the CLAIRE Network are committed to working together with other members, towards the realisation of our primary goal: European excellence across all of AI, for all of Europe, with a human-centred focus. We expect many more groups to join in the near future and will update our official list at claire-ai.org/network regularly. Other components of the CLAIRE vision, notably the Centres of Excellence and the CLAIRE Hub, will be further developed and refined over the next few months – stay tuned!

Furthermore, an initial number of Informal Advisory Groups (IAGs) have been formed, to create a conduit between CLAIRE and the topically organised communities within the broad field of AI, and to allow for better connections between the different research areas. The IAGs (claire-ai.org/IAGs) have been formed with key supporters that have proactively and consistently worked with us to make CLAIRE a success, in a way that captures geographic diversity within Europe, and with a focus on well-connected and highly respected researchers.