Turkey experienced the benefits of economic growth as well as the impacts of economic recessions over the last three decades. The experience gained during this period have lead Turkey to raise the science and technology platform to a higher level, as well as to be engaged in a significant science, technology and innovation (STI) impetus. As part of this STI impetus, State Planning Department of Turkish Government was held responsible in mobilizing resources for research and development infrastructure. In this context, Istanbul Technical University (ITU) was identified and assigned to develop the rotorcraft technologies for manned and unmanned helicopters in 2001. As the universities' main goals in society are; education, research and industrial applications; ITU Rotorcraft Centre of Excellence evolved to achieve these goals by developing a graduate degree program, conducting research on rotorcraft technologies and establishing strong links with local and global industrial partners. In this paper, the development of Science-Technology-Innovation policy system in Turkey will briefly be summarized, followed by the information on the establishment and the development of "ITU Rotorcraft Centre of Excellence", where equivalent centres in other countries will be evaluated. More detailed information on the physical and human resources of the centre will be given together with some sample projects conducted and products developed in the ITU Rotorcraft Centre of Excellence. A critical assessment will be made to identify to what extend ITU Rotorcraft Centre of Excellence has achieved its objectives. Finally, some recommendations will be given on common issues like; management, finance, personnel acquisition, performance evaluation and collaboration with partners to achieve sustainability of similar research and development centres in other countries.
