The Czech Technological Agency‘s Centres of Competence programme offers support for establishing and operating centres for research, innovation and development in progressive fields with high potential for application that have promise and potential for contributing to growing competitiveness of the Czech Republic. The idea behind the Centres of Competence programme is to establish a long-term, sustainable system in which consortia of companies and research organisations will collaborate to implement their strategic research agendas. The Centres are not only competent to work towards set targets, but will also generate further research questions and issues in sectors important for the competitiveness of the Czech Republic, and will be competent to work on finding solutions. The Centres will form a basis for the development of long-term collaboration in research, development and innovation between the public sector and the private sector, and will stimulate the emergence of strategic partnerships that emphasize the practical implementation, realization and assessment of research findings. The work of the Centres of Competence will reinforce the potential to work on multi-disciplinary research, development and innovation projects, and to enhance the horizontal mobility of research workers, especially young researchers.