By clustering research activities into Centres of Competence, the 3TU.Federation aims to strengthen the competitive position of the Dutch knowledge economy. The resulting ‘critical mass’ is essential to create a strong knowledge base. We believe this is inseparable from the drive to achieve and maintain scientific excellence. For this reason, Centres of Excellence have been established within the Centres of Competence. These are partnerships aiming at the creation of synergy and critical mass in specific research topics. In these centres our best research workers, together with newly recruited top professors, will work together on a number of socially relevant themes in coordinated, focused programmes.

Within the 3TU.Federation, the fields for coordinated research include the following:

• joint research assessments
• more structured partnerships with TNO/GTIs
• commissioning surveys of the social need for scientific and technological knowledge to help validate the 3TU research policy
• identifying the citation impact of 3TU