With the support of the Åbo Akademi University Foundation, Åbo Akademi University will conduct an application round to select Centres of Excellence in Research for the period 2024-2028. This is the fifth time that ÅAU appoints Centres of Excellence. The aim is to strengthen the university’s research environments and thus improve the research team’s possibilities of receiving competitive external funding. The information on the application round and how to apply is presented on the ÅAU external web Do research with us/Centres of Excellence

Reko Leino, Vice-rector for Research, is in charge of the application round and will appoint the new Centres of Excellence. In cooperation with his planning team, he will answer questions concerning the application round. If ambiguities arise, the Vice-rector decides how the rules of the application round should be interpreted.

– The ÅAU Foundation’s targeted funds for top research give us the opportunity to continue investing in our CoE programme. When planning the new application round, we have listened to the research community. For instance, we have acknowledged the opinion of not linking the CoE programme with the strategic research profiles of the university. Everyone can apply. We want to encourage all kinds of research excellence and hope to see an abundance of good applications!

Research Director Ruth Illman is the ÅAU Foundation’s representative in the planning team. She points out that there are minor changes in this fifth application round, while at the same time trying to protect the aspects already working well.

– In 2022, the Foundation conducted a broad investigation into the CoE programme. The result being that the research community was satisfied with the current application process, we have only made small adjustments. For example, we are bringing in more evaluators in the first evaluation round to meet the challenges comparing applications from very different research fields.

Mats Lindfelt, Director of Research Services, hopes that the applying teams will recognize the format from other application processes and that it is quite easy to apply.

– In our planning, we have tried to adapt to the Academy of Finland’s application criteria. At the same time, it is our own process, so we have removed requirements not adding value to this specific process. To enable applications also from younger researchers, we have made an adjustment regarding the requirements on the research team and considered younger researchers in how the merits are assessed.

Quality Management Coordinator Ole Karlsson is looking forward to an exciting application round. He hopes the instructions are clear to all and that the research community finds the application and assessment criteria to be fair.

– Ten out of twelve external evaluators are already engaged. Getting external researchers on board has often proven difficult in an evaluation process like this, but so far, things are looking good. In the evaluation itself, we have reduced the number of criteria, from five in 2018 to three in this round. Thus, the assessment will highlight the excellence and impact of the suggested research plan. This is in line with the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment, a European policy paper agreed on while we were working with the CoE application process.

---

Questions can be directed to:

E-mail address for the CoE application process: CoE@abo.fi