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How do scientists contribute to the production of public policy? To answer this question, this article sets out to analyse the political role played by scientists broadly defined - academics, experts or practitioners claiming to master specialized knowledge – and this by using the concept of “co-production”. Drawing on the case of European integration, its first aim is to clarify this concept by distinguishing three approaches to the coproduction of public policy: event-driven, genealogical and archaeological. In particular, the text highlights the questions, actors and processes central to each case. In so doing, the aim is not so much to oppose these approaches as to show how they can be combined to sketch a socio-historical model of the contribution of scientists to the production of public policy. Overall, the article proposes an invitation for greater dialogue between socio-historical approaches and public policy analysis around the issue of scientists’ work. The different approaches presented are illustrated through the example of the building of European competition policy.