The theme and the title “Competence centre management” are chosen with a sole desire to explore opportunities and offer solutions through a concrete model of the Competence centre management - for the most important natural raw material resource of Croatia and Vukovar-Srijem County, Slavonian oak (lat. quercus robbur) - through the establishment and management of Competence centre as permanent competitive source of income and one of the pillars of sustainable development of the county. Establishment of competence centres in Croatia is based on a Smart specialisation strategy of the Republic of Croatia 2016 – 2020. Wood sector is a strategic development sector of VSC and is based on valuable local raw wood material of Slavonian oak from the largest oak forest in Europe - Spačva basin. Research of the development potential of the wood sector showed that only 38% of locally available raw wood material is used by local wood processing industry, exploiting only one-third of its processing capacities. On the basis of the primary and secondary research of development potential of the wood sector of VSC, by smart use of local raw wood material, total income of the wood industry in VSC can be increased 3.6 times and double the number of employees, which would mean opening of 1,200 new jobs. This paper elaborates on how exportation of local raw wood material outside the VSC and Croatia despite of existing local manufacturing capacities and the market for final products, lack of usage of available renewable energy sources of biomass and pellets, unnecessary increasing of transportation costs for raw materials, biomass and energy products outside of VSC and Croatia which increases CO2 emission and use of imported fossil fuels that increase energy dependency of VSC, Croatia and the EU, all together make long-term damage to the environment and economy of the Vukovar-Srijem county, Croatia and the European Union. Primary and secondary research were used as the main methods of collecting information. Development potential of the wood industry of VSC was researched in line with the hypotheses about the high development potentials. Primary research was conducted in ten companies from wood sector of VSC by survey and interviews. Secondary research used all available relevant national and county data sources. Based on survey results, SWOT for wood industry of VSC was made. In the area of VSC there are no scientific and research capacities that can meet the development needs of strategic development sector. In accordance with the directives and strategies of the European Commission, Croatia and VSC, smart use of locally available resource is possible by establishing a transfer of knowledge and technology through a specific management model of Competence centre for Slavonian oak. Local business needs for research and innovation and the existing national scientific and research capacities have to be permanently connected by the involvement of public sector, in accordance with triple helix concept (private sector - public sector - scientific sector), by enabling efficient management of the institution for the transfer of knowledge and technology. This will acquire all the necessary conditions to meet business needs for research and innovation and enable utilization of the economic potential of valuable locally available resource of Slavonian oak in order to increase the competitiveness of the wood sector for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.