Feature: NATO Centres of Excellence trying to adapt to turbulent times

NATO's ENSEC COE demonstrates portable hydrogen fuel cell technology in collaboration with the French military. (NATO ENSEC COE)

NATO Centres of Excellence (COEs) operate as research, training, and development hubs for the alliance without being a formal element of its command structure. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and accelerating technological innovations have placed new demands on the centres, affecting priorities in everything from cyber security to air and missile defence.

The COE concept traces its history to the 2003 Prague Summit, which revised the alliance's command structure. It stipulated the creation of a network of COEs, either nationally or multinationally managed and funded, and open for participation to all member states. At the same time, the summit led to the creation of NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT), which oversees and co-ordinates the COEs and their relationship with the alliance more widely.

At the time of writing in March 2025 there were 30 COEs, with focuses in everything from air operations (AO) to human intelligence (HUMINT) and from cold weather operations (CWO) to counterintelligence (CI). They are based in countries throughout the alliance and on both sides of the Atlantic.

There are three different types of participants for COEs described by NATO: Framework Nations, Sponsoring Nations, and Contributing Nations. Framework nations are at the core of the concept, offering a COE to NATO, drafting the initial concept, and leading the development of legal arrangements to ensure smooth operations. The framework nation also hosts the COE. The centres can have members or contributing partners from countries outside the NATO alliance.

The relationship between NATO ACT and the COEs “is best described as symbiotic”, a NATO ACT official told Janes