Mission and objective
The Special Interest Group on Public Affairs and Policy (SIG-PA) is a strategic forum dedicated to strengthening the NREN and GÉANT communities’ capacity for effective policy engagement and strategic awareness, at national and European levels.
SIG-PA acts as a neutral hub for knowledge exchange and shared learning amongst NREN public affairs experts and interested stakeholders. Its core objective is to move beyond traditional communications and focus on influencing the regulatory and financial environments that determine the future of research and education networking. SIG-PA aims to equip NRENs with the strategic tools and understanding necessary to protect core funding, influence and understand policy, and secure investment in next-generation infrastructure.
Focus areas and key challenges
This special interest group focuses on bridging the gap between technical expertise and political action, addressing the most pressing strategic and policy challenges facing the community:
- Digital sovereignty and autonomy: Defining the NRENs’ role in ensuring European digital autonomy, particularly regarding infrastructure, data control, and critical services.
- Policy influence in the AI age (GEO/LLMO): Developing new advocacy strategies (Generative Engine Optimisation/Large Language Model Optimisation) to ensure NREN policy positions are accurately reflected and synthesised by large language models (LLMs), thereby influencing decision-makers who rely on AI-generated summaries.
- Strategic funding alignment: Analysing and aligning NREN priorities with key European Commission work programmes (e.g. HE, CEF, DEP) to maximise funding opportunities and secure strategic relevance.
- Proactive and defensive advocacy: Sharing best practices for both proactive lobbying (securing funding for new initiatives like AI factories and other strategic compute resources) and defensive advocacy (protecting core NREN budgets from cuts).
- Stakeholder engagement: Mapping and engaging with non-traditional political, financial, and societal stakeholders to build strong advocacy coalitions.
Steering committee
The steering committee is responsible for setting the annual agenda, defining work items, and driving collaboration. Initial members will be formalised in January 2026, and will be listed on this web page following the constitutional meeting.
SIG-PA is currently inviting nominations from senior NREN executives with expertise in stakeholder engagement and public affairs to join the committee.