Centres of excellence in research

Through its national centre of excellence programme the Academy of Finland provides funding for high-quality research units and graduate schools with a chance of attaining a leading international position in their research fields. A centre of excellence is a unit comprising one or more research groups with clearly delineated research objectives and a common leadership.

Since 2000 the Academy of Finland has taken a total of 98 decisions on designating centres of excellence. Currently the University of Tampere is coordinating two of them.  

2012-2017 FiCEHiR, The Finnish Centre of Excellence in Historical Research

2008-2013 FinMIT - Centre of Excellence in Research on Mitochondrial Disease and Ageing

FidiPro - top researchers at the University of Tampere

The Finland Distinguished Professor Programme is a jointly funded programme of the Academy of Finland and the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (TEKES) for the recruitment to Finland for the fixed period of foreign professorial standard researchers or Finnish professorial researchers who have served for long periods abroad. The aim is to create novel international co-operation between basic and applied research and with the R & D function of enterprises.

Funding can be applied for by Finnish universities and research institutes. The first FidiPro researchers began work in 2007. There are currently four FidiPro professors at the University of Tampere:

Stephen J. Bailey, School of Management (funded by Tekes, 2011-2014)

Dan Hultmark, The Institute of Medical Technology (funded by the Academy of Finland, 2008-2013)

Laurie Kaguni, The Institute of Medical Technology (funded by the Academy of Finland, 2010-2015))

Hans Lilja, The Institute of Medical Technology (funded by Tekes, 2011-2015)