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 extremely 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 program VINN Excellence Center Program in 2005 funding 4 centres and in 2007 funding 15 centres. These centres have now been operating for over five years and this report presents the results of the second evaluation of these centers.