The competition calls for Millennium Institutes and Nuclei projects have two purposes: the creation of new research centers of excellence and the competitive renewal of those that complete their first execution period.

The main criteria to evaluate the projects are: the academic and scientific excellence of the project and its researchers; the objectives and approach of the research plan; the technical and methodological quality of the project; the transdisciplinarity and associative work between the researchers and external collaborations of the project; the training capacity of young scientists; the institutional projection; the total cost and complementary public or private sources of financing; and the general conditions for the purposes to be achieved.