The Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs) are interorganisational research networks in New Zealand funded through the Centres of Research Excellence scheme, which is administered by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).
The scheme was set up in 2002 with the aim "to build networks to connect high-performing researchers in the university system". A 2001 review of university research by TEC had revealed a fragmented research system, which did not encourage collaboration and was based on the number of students enrolled or on a small and short term agreed programme of research, and could not be applied strategically to fund areas of importance to New Zealand's development. The CoRE fund and the Performance Based Research Fund were set up as complementary funds to address these problems. The CoREs were intended to be networks of "high-performing researchers" that would be "strategically focused and linked to New Zealand’s future economic and societal needs, of excellent quality, and transferable."
The initial funding round distributed $260 million, with a further capital investment of $50 million, from 2001/02 to 2011/12. The initial centres were established in 2002, after a selection process run by the Royal Society Te Apārangi.[1]
Five CoREs were selected in 2002, with another two chosen in a second round in 2003. These seven CoREs were allocated funding for six years. There was a mid-term review after three years, with funding for the remaining three years to be confirmed on the basis of an assessment of performance to date. An assessment by the Ministry of Education in 2013 concluded that "the work of the CoREs has had wide-ranging impacts on New Zealand's society and economy".
Four further contestable funding rounds have been run, in 2006/07, 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2019/20. There are currently (as of 2023) ten CoREs, which are funded until 31 December 2028. The fund is $49.8 million per annum (GST exclusive).
In 2022 another national centre of excellence was established, He Whenua Taurikura, New Zealand’s National Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism. (This centre does not appear to be funded by the CoRE fund but has been included in the table below for completeness.)[2]
| Bioprotection Aotearoa (previously Bio-Protection Research Centre) | Lincoln University | Amanda Black and Travis Glare[3] (previously Alison Stewart)[4] | 2002/03 | 2028 | $31.5M over 8 years (2003–2010) | website | |
| Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga – New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence | University of Auckland | Linda Smith and Michael Walker | 2002/03 | 2028 | $34.5M over 9 years (2002–2010) | website | |
| The Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery | University of Auckland | Greg Cook (previously Ted Baker) | 2002/03 | 2028 | $33.4M over 9 years (2002–2010) | website | |
| MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology | Victoria University of Wellington | Paul Callaghan | 2002/03 | 2028 | $13.39M over 3 years and a one-off $9.8M capital grant | website | |
| Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution | Massey University | David Penny and Mike Hendy | 2002/03 | 2015 | $26.8M over 9 years (2002–2010) | ||
| Gravida: National Research Centre for Growth and Development | University of Auckland | Philip Baker[5] (previously Peter Gluckman) | 2002/03 | 2015 | |||
| New Zealand Institute of Mathematics and its Applications | University of Auckland | Vaughan Jones and Marston Conder | 2002/03 | 2008 | $4.855M over 3 years and a one-off $113,970 capital grant | ||
| Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies, Te Whai Ao | University of Otago | David Hutchinson | 2014/15 | 2028 | website | ||
| Healthy Hearts for Aotearoa New Zealand – Manaaki Mānawa | University of Auckland | Anna Rolleston and Julian Paton[6] | 2020[7] | 2028 | website | ||
| University of Otago | Chris Hepburn and Anne-Marie Jackson | 2020[8] | 2028 | website | |||
| Te Hiranga Rū QuakeCoRE Aotearoa New Zealand Centre for Earthquake Resilience | University of Canterbury | Brendon Bradley[9] | 2014/15 | 2028 | Second allocation: $31.5M over seven years from 2020[10] | website | |
| Riddet Institute (National Centre for Research Excellence in Food Science) | Massey University | Harjinder Singh[11] | 2008 | 2028 | $11M over 3 years (2008–2010) | website | |
| Te Pūnaha Matatini – Aotearoa New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence for Complex Systems | University of Auckland | Shaun Hendy, Priscilla Wehi,[12] Markus Luczak-Roesch,[13] | 2013 | 2028 | website | ||
| The Medical Technologies CoRE | University of Auckland | Diana Siew and Peter Hunter | 2028 | website | |||
| He Whenua Taurikura, National Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism | Victoria University of Wellington | Joanna Kidman and Paul Spoonley | 2022 | $1.325M for the year beginning 1 July 2022 and $2.15M for each subsequent year[14] | website |
Two centres that were funded in 2002/03 failed to get further funding after 2015, while the New Zealand Institute of Mathematics and its Applications was funded for six years from 2002.[15]