International Conference on Leadership & AI in Research
For leaders and researchers who are serious about what AI means for their organisation — and what to do about it.
CLAIR addresses one of the defining challenges of the coming decade:
How artificial intelligence is reshaping the foundations of research, engineering, and innovation – and what this means for leaders, organisations and scientific progress.
In partnership with
a Conference designed by
AI is Reshaping Research.
Lead the Change.
CLAIR is the first international forum dedicated to one of the most pressing leadership challenges of our time: how to lead research, innovation and decision-making as AI reshapes everything around you.
Over three days, you will gain strategies, governance frameworks and real-world perspectives from leading thinkers in the private sector, academia, and AI — helping you lead your organisation with clarity and confidence in hybrid human–AI research environments. Beyond tools. Beyond hype.
Choose between the Industry Ticket or the Academic Ticket for a conference experience tailored to your professional focus.
Confirmed Speakers
Who the CLAIR is for
Whether you work in pharma, manufacturing, fintech, energy, or another sector, CLAIR provides a space to step beyond immediate implementation and engage with the deeper questions that determine long-term impact.
Here, practitioners meet leading academics and peers from multiple industries to exchange experience, challenge assumptions, and learn across traditional conference and sector boundaries.
Rather than focusing on tools or vendors, CLAIR centers on issues often overlooked in rapid AI adoption, scientific method, accountability, critical thinking, and organizational transformation.
As an Executive, you will not only gain insight; you will actively shape a shared agenda, influencing how future research and leadership dialogue evolve across industries.
Rather than presenting finished answers, CLAIR invites researchers to influence questions that are still emerging, and in many cases under-researched. Through cross-industry dialogue and the co-creation of the CLAIR Research Agenda, participants help define future research directions that do not yet fully exist in the literature, connecting theory with practice where technology, governance, cognition, and organizational change intersect.
Choose between a two- or three day conference depening on how deep you want to delve into the latest science on AI for Research.
If you want to showcase your product or innovation, feel free to reach out to us and book a booth space in the lobby so others can meet you and your company between the sessions
Contact: conference@westwerk.dk
Steering Committee
The CLAIR Steering Committee brings together a distinctive combination of senior R&D leadership, academic excellence, and cross-industry experience to guide the strategic direction and intellectual integrity of the conference.
Scientific Program Committee
The CLAIR Scientific & Program Committee is responsible for safeguarding the academic quality and conceptual coherence of the conference. The committee evaluates and selects abstracts for Day 1 presentations, coordinates the development of the CLAIR Research Agenda on Day 3, and provides scientific oversight across themes. Members also contribute academic facilitation to the Day 3 workshops, ensuring methodological rigor, cross-industry relevance, and continuity between research insight, leadership dialogue, and the conference’s long-term knowledge outcomes.
The Conference Days
Day 1
Cross-industry sessions to surface emerging practices, and insights on AI in research-intensive environments, and to set a shared intellectual baseline for the main conference day.
Day 2
Compelling keynotes and discussions offer you a strategic understanding of how AI is reshaping research, engineering, and innovation across industries — and how you can transform know-how and technology into groundbreaking results for your organization and career.
Day 3
An interactive day where you can convert your learnings into action. Move from insight to integration by developing leadership perspectives, shared principles, and actionable frameworks for managing AI in research-intensive environments.
Core Themes
CLAIR is structured around four tightly interconnected themes that together address how artificial intelligence is reshaping research-intensive work across industries. These themes are not treated in isolation; rather, they reflect the reality that changes in technology, method, leadership, and culture are deeply interdependent.
AI and the Scientific & Engineering Method
focuses on how AI alters the very logic of discovery and design. As algorithms generate hypotheses, run simulations, optimize experiments, or suggest interpretations, long-standing assumptions about experimentation, validation, causality, and explanation are challenged. CLAIR examines how scientific and engineering rigor can be preserved – and redefined – when reasoning becomes a shared activity between humans and machines.
Leadership, Governance, and Accountability
addresses the growing need for clear responsibility in hybrid human – AI systems. When decisions are influenced by opaque models or automated recommendations, questions of oversight, trust, and accountability become central. CLAIR explores leadership models and governance frameworks that enable speed and innovation while maintaining responsibility, transparency, and ethical integrity.
Critical Thinking in Algorithmic Environments
highlights the cognitive dimension of AI adoption. Automation bias, over-reliance on algorithmic output, and epistemic overconfidence pose real risks to research quality. CLAIR focuses on how organizations can strengthen critical thinking, ensuring that human judgment remains active, sceptical, and scientifically grounded in AI-supported workflows.
Organizational and Cultural Transformation
recognizes that AI adoption is not only a technical shift, but an organizational one. Roles, workflows, incentives, and professional identities must evolve. CLAIR examines how cultures of trust, learning, and psychological safety can be cultivated so that AI enhances creativity and collaboration rather than constraining them. Together, these themes frame CLAIR’s ambition: to support responsible, high-quality research in an era of accelerating AI.
In partnership with
The Institute of Management of Innovation and Technology (IMIT) advances industrial renewal by bridging academic research and real-world practice, integrating technology and engineering expertise with strategic management and economic insight to ensure that technological development delivers tangible business and societal value.
IMIT is anchored in close collaboration with leading Swedish universities, including KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, Lund University of Technology, Linköping University, and the Stockholm School of Economics, and in recent years has strengthened its research in artificial intelligence and its implications for leadership and organizational design, ensuring strong academic depth and practical relevance.
Copenhagen
The specific venue is yet to be announced.
A Capital of Innovation
Copenhagen is renowned not just for its iconic mermaid, but also as a center for innovation, technology, and forward-thinking scientists. CLAIR 2026 is scheduled for 16–18 September and will take place in Copenhagen; the specific venue is yet to be announced.