Understanding CoREs

I have only just seen this article. According to today's National Business Review, Otago University has dubbed government processes for funding Centres of Research Excellence a “fiasco” after just one new centre was approved from 26 applications in the latest funding round.

Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs) are inter-institutional research networks where researchers work together on a commonly agreed work programme.

Tertiary Education Minister, Michael Cullen, says the CoREs will together receive about $31.4 million a year for six years and one-off capital funding of $20 million.

My previous posts on the European Research Council and the Seventh Framework Programme, put this spend into perspective. Perhaps CoREs might be New Zealand's best route to participate in these two EU-sponsored programmes.