At deadline, the university had received the following applications (30) in the application round to become an ÅAU-Centre of Excellence in Research for the period 2024-2028
| Director | The name of the CoE |
| Jan Antfolk | Psychology at the Frontiers: Asylum Interviewing and Decision-Making [Psych-AID] |
| Nicklas Anttu | Structured Materials for Photonic Devices [StructPhot] |
| Siv Björklund | Teaching practices and teacher education for linguistically diversifying schools – Center of Excellence in Swedish immersion [SWIM-ed] |
| Johan Bobacka | Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Chemical Sensor Technology [CHESS] |
| Eleanor Coffey | SMART Deep Dive into Disease Data [SMART] |
| Cataldo De Blasio | Centre of Excellence in Hydro-Thermal Processing |
| Kimmo Grönlund | The Future of Democracy – A Center of Excellence in Democracy Research [FutuDem] |
| Ria Heilä-Ylikallio | Literacies, Arts, and Performativity in Education [LAPEd] |
| Jessica Hemberg | Well-being and Health in Educational Institutions [WHEI] |
| Johanna Ilmakunnas | Border Work, Border Regimes and Baltic Crises, 1830–2030 |
| Mira Karrasch | Centre for Psychedelic Research |
| Johan Korhonen | iFeelSchool – Centre of Excellence in Well-Being and Learning |
| Antti Laato | Texts to New Times: Biblical Argumentation after the Edict of Milan [BAEM] |
| Olli Lagerspetz | De-Legitimising and Re-Legitimising the Human Sciences: Empirical and Conceptual Aspects |
| Viveka Lyberg Åhlander | Consequences of Large Language Models in Higher Education |
| Peter Nynäs | Religion and Social Exclusion: A Cross-Cultural Approach and New Methodology [RELEX] |
| Fredrica Nyqvist | Bothnia Ageing Research Excellence Centre [BARE]: Social Inclusion as a Driver for Ageing Well in the Nordic Context |
| Mikael Nygård | Center of Excellence in child and family wellbeing [ChildFam] |
| Jessica Rosenholm | Materials-driven solutions for combating antimicrobial resistance [MADNESS] |
| Jan Saarela | Partner choice and its consequences among natives and immigrants in Finland |
| Tapio Salmi | Transformative Chemical Engineering [COE TCE] |
| Lea Sistonen | LifeInMotion: Centre of Excellence in Dynamic Tissue Repair |
| Pamela Slotte | (Un)Making Nordic Minorities: Centre of Excellence in Minority Research [UNMAKE] |
| Anna Törnroos-Remes | Centre for Sustainable Ocean Science [SOS] |
| Michael Uljens | Pedagogical Leadership of Curriculum Work |
| Mika Vähäkangas | Religion and Nationalism between the East and the West [ReNEW] |
| Holger Weiss | Responding to Complex Emergencies [RCE]: Finnish Humanitarian Aid for Relief and Prevention in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa |
| Chunlin Xu | Cneg-BioRef: Carbon-Negative Biorefineries – Sustainable solutions for upgrading biobased residues and biorefinery side streams |
| Ron Zevenhoven | Silicate rock resources for mineral valorization and CO2 sequestration [Sirocco] |
| Ronald Österbacka | BIOelectronic Control and sensing and control of Ligand-receptor InteraCtions [BIO-CLIC] |