In the autumn of 2023, TalTech’s leadership seminar took place in Laulasmaa, where one of the topics was the collaborative development of the science focus areas approved by the senate and the development directions of the green strategy adopted by the council.

An example was presented of how, by using European Union funding opportunities, it was possible to create the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities practically from scratch, which continues to operate as an applied research center of excellence with extensive international collaboration. By that time, two Estonian centers of excellence led by TalTech had also received funding: the Center of Excellence in Energy Efficiency and the Centre of Excellence in circular economy SOURCES. In the case of the circular economy center, the key to securing financing was the Circular Economy Core Laboratory, created to initiate interdisciplinary cooperation between faculties.

However, these covered only a small part of TalTech’s research potential. The idea emerged to launch collaboration centers in other major focus areas and development directions as well, not through top-down directives, but through the collaborative initiative of the institutes themselves. Thus, in the spring of 2024, six Centers of Excellence (COEs) were established in the fields of future energy, smart industry, smart maritime, artificial intelligence, wood valorization, and health and food technologies.

Their goal was first to consolidate the university’s internal potential, then to develop a cooperation format, identity, event marketing, and external partnerships, and afterward to focus on utilizing funding opportunities. For this purpose, each center received €60,000–83,000 annually. Financing also continued for the Circular Economy Core Laboratory to further unlock collaboration potential and the use of funding opportunities.

In the spring of 2025, it became clear that some thematic areas were still uncovered. Centers for defense and security as well as ESG and responsible economy were added, and they quickly developed to the level of COEs, receiving official Focus Center of Excellence status in the spring of 2026.

The centers do not have a rigid “mandatory program.” Their operating principles also differ somewhat and are linked to the respective thematic field. For example, the Artificial Intelligence COE feels a broader responsibility to open up the opportunities of this field to other COEs and to the university as a whole. The Wood Valorization COE already has a very well-developed domestic cooperation network in Estonia, while its challenge is to achieve stronger international collaboration. The defense and security thematic field has not yet had a home institute, and both the opportunities and needs in this area are very large.

At the same time, all COEs have been very successful in thematic event marketing; both internal university events and especially events aimed at external partnerships have become highly popular. By this year, all COEs have also reached the stage of submitting numerous large-scale project applications. We are keeping our fingers crossed that as many of them as possible receive funding.

All the new centers presented their achievements and goals to date at the April 2026 senate meeting. According to the university’s international advisory board, all COEs require start-up support for at least five years, after which it will become clear whether and in what format they should continue. For 2026, it was ensured that each COE would continue to have €83,000 available, as before. In the autumn of 2026, at the council’s request, the university’s internal audit will also review the objectives, results, and development of the COEs.

That these are indeed the university of technology’s most important focus areas also became clear during the preparation of the development plan. The 12 science focus areas highlighted in the new development plan overlap extensively with the already existing centers of excellence and the newly established COEs. It could even be said that the existence of the COEs itself helped shape the selection of the science focus areas.

It is also important to understand what the COEs do and are capable of, and what they do not do. There is hope that in the coming years the COEs will also strengthen cooperation with industry in these thematic areas. Naturally, the university’s important activities in event marketing, reputation building, and support for proposal writing will continue. At the same time, based on the experiences of the COEs, but still separately, important tenure professorships and educational processes must be further developed through cooperation between faculties and institutes.

Work has also begun to define and establish the position of the COEs within the university structure. One possible solution is to define consortia as inter-institutional units with their own statutes, while their management home would still remain within an already existing academic subunit.

If expectations are fulfilled, the COEs will help further utilize external financing opportunities, ensuring the university’s development. Through the COEs, we will also become opinion leaders, policy shapers, and leading partners in both domestic and international cooperation.