Centre of Expertise Programme

The Centre of Expertise Programme, OSKE, is a fixed-term governmental programme which targets measures at national level at important areas of priority. The programme relies on the use of high level - in global terms - regional expertise and supports interregional specialisation and the division of responsibilities in order to create competitive centres of excellence.

The aim of the programme is to establish cutting edge innovations, products, services, businesses and jobs. In addition, the programme aims at boosting the attractiveness of regional innovation environments in order to convince internationally active companies, investors and experts of their potential.

For the period 2007-2013, 13 nationally important clusters of expertise with good growth potential were accepted into the programme by means of a two-stage competition. At the same time, 21 centres of excellence from different areas were approved for these clusters of excellence.

The Centre of Expertise Programme began in  1994, and its aim from the start has been to build networks of cooperation between companies, research and public actors. It would not have been possible to launch the new cluster programme based on cooperation between regional centres of excellence without viable regional networks. The clusters of excellence.make it possible to utilise scattered national resources effectively. At the same time they successfully pave the way for regional research and business.