Centres of Excellence

The Academy of Finland is responsible for the national programmes for Centres of Excellence in research. A Centre of Excellence (CoE) is a premier research and researcher training unit that is at the international cutting edge of research in its field.

A CoE consists of one or more research teams. The unit shares a common set of research objectives and works under a joint management. A CoE may be composed of research teams operating both at universities and research institutes, also in cooperation with business companies.

The societal impact evaluation of Finnish Centre of Excellence (CoE) programmes shows that the programmes have been highly successful in achieving their goals, particularly in terms of creating more stimulating research environments and improving researcher training (Evaluation report).

Funding for CoEs comes not only from the Academy but also from universities and research institutes as well as other partners, such as Tekes, foundations and companies.