The High Level Workshop on ERA offers an annual platform for Science Europe Member Organisations, national ministries, and EU institutions to discuss progress, specific aspects, and future development of the ERA.

The High Level Workshop on ERA 2019 is co-organised in Helsinki by Science Europe and:

• Academy of Finland (AKA)
• Finnish Ministry for Education and Culture

Competitive research funding, based on peer review and managed by research funding organisations, has traditionally had its major role in supporting researchers and research groups to conduct high-quality research projects. The main expected outcomes of the funded projects are scientific discoveries, top-quality scientific publications, and research-based education.

In addition to research projects led by principal investigators, many funders have for some decades also supported the creation and development of centres of excellence and competence clusters.

Summary

The 2019 HLW participants explored the various drivers and the rationale behind the creation of excellence centres and competence clusters, both at national and European level. The definitions offered for the participants’ consideration were as follows:

• Centres of excellence focus on supporting high-quality research of a single team or a single research organisation. They may be built on a shared facility, on a network of research teams, or organisations supported by a coordination entity, and so on.
• Competence clusters usually refer to strategic collaboration initiatives where multiple sources of financial support are available to increase the competences in not only high-quality research, but also in education and impact beyond academia, such as in the private or public sector.

The event looked into the strategic dimension of these centres and their contribution to the research and innovation landscape. Participants reflected on their organisational and national research and innovation strategies, the role played by excellence centres and competence clusters in an ecosystem in constant evolution, and shared the lessons learned after years of managing these initiatives. A wide array of approaches was presented, ranging from the German Clusters of Excellence Programme, to the Spanish Roadmap to Leadership, via the Swiss National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCRs), and the Finnish approach to Funding.