Representative democracy is put under pressure the last few years, prompting the exploration of alternatives, including technocracy: an approach that transfers decision-making power to politically independent experts . Although support for this governance model can be found among numerous citizens, it is also contested, as became apparent during the COVID-19 crisis. Research on technocratic elements is less developed than e.g. research on citizen participation. Studies on this topic mainly approached the role of experts in policy-making in a very general way. By studying one specific type of experts (academic experts), and by distinguishing between three specific channels of influence that experts use (government, parliament and media), we shift the focus to more concrete features of expert involvement, which will lead to more in-depth insights in this phenomenon. Moreover, we move beyond the narrow focus of current research on citizens’ attitudes towards expert involvement, both by investigating attitudes of other stakeholders such as politicians and experts themselves, and by studying other aspects than attitudes, namely the actual use and the effects of expert advice. The project comprises three parts. First, we analyze the actual use of expert involvement through observational data. Second, we study the effects of expert advice using process tracing. Third, a vignette experiment examines the attitudes of citizens, politicians, and experts toward expert involvement.