CASTOR will accelerate competence supply, industrial innovation, development and management of trustworthy software intensive systems for critical functions.

• Train World-Class Graduates – This is one of the main objective of the research centre, as it combines all aspects that will have an impact on software research and industry: higher-education, novel research contributions and availability of expert manpower to build software systems and train the future software engineers.

• Perform Excellent Research – CASTOR is a centre that focuses on scientific research in the area of software technology. It aims at research excellence and leadership, with a clear focus on the lower technology readiness levels (TRL 1-4).

• Foster Academia-Industry Collaborations – Collaborations between KTH and the Swedish software-intensive systems industry are key for CASTOR. These collaborations increase the relevance of the software research performed within the centre. The longevity of the collaboration increases the chances that the result will be of use and have impact. The collaboration will leverage bilateral mobility between industry and academia.

• Emphasise Open Science and Innovation – CASTOR will achieve world-class research through the highest scientific standards in all our research activities. Reproducible experiments, open data, open publications and open-source software form the core principles for this objective.

• Structure the Software Area at KTH – This objective aims at strengthening and increasing the visibility of software research at KTH, which is currently scattered over multiple groups, departments and schools.

• Deliver Software Tools – CASTOR will develop open source tools to support the continuous evolution of software. These tools will support the scientific investigations of the centre, participate in the centre’s visibility and form key assets for industry and society.