Vinnova and its predecessors have since 1995 funded competence research centres with an effort to build bridges between science and industry in Sweden by creating excellent academic research environments in which industrial companies participate actively and persistently in order to deliver long-term benefits. The mission is to strengthen the very crucial links in the Swedish national innovation system between academic research groups, industrial R&D and public sector actors. The competence research centres have shown to generate very good long term results for participating companies in forms of e.g. new products, new processes and financial results and increased competitiveness.
Based on previous experience, Vinnova started a new programme Vinn Excellence Centre programme in 2005 funding 4 centres and in 2007 funding 15 centers and opened up a new, third generation competence centre programme year 2015. The existing centres from the Vinn Excellence programme have been evaluated twice during the years and as consequence of that, two of them did not receive continued funding. The remaining 17 centres have now been operating for eight years and this report presents the results of the third evaluation of these centres.
The evaluation of stage three, year 5-8, of Vinn Excellence Centres was focused on the long-term output, outcome and impact on the partners; industrial-, public- and academic partners and also on the future, the plans beyond stage 4. The evaluation is an opportunity to give advice and recommendations on how each centre can become even more efficient and effective. Based on the evaluation results, Vinnova has decided that 16 out of 17 centres will be approved for a fourth period.