CECOST was founded in 1996 at the Faculty of Engineering LTH, Lund University in close collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology and the Royal Institute of Technology. The centre was financed by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research between 1996 and 2001.

From 2002 the Research Program has been financed by the Swedish Energy Agency. CECOST also hosted a Graduate School financed by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research until 2012 and by the Swedish Energy Agency between 2010 and 2013. Furthermore, CECOST hosted a Strategic Research Centre at Lund University financed by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research 2006-2012. Växjö University participated in the CECOST activities between 2002 and 2006.

For the period starting 2014, The Research Program of CECOST was divided into two parts:

KC-CECOST, a Centre of Competence at Lund University, funded by the Swedish Energy Agency, the Faculty of Engineering LTH at Lund University and Industry consisting of the more applied projects, and

GEN-CECOST, a national project funded entirely by the Swedish Energy Agency, with participation from Lund University, Chalmers University of Technology and the Royal Institute of Technology consisting of the more generic and phenomenological projects.

The Graduate School of CECOST was restarted 2016 thanks to strategic support from the Faculty of Engineering, LTH at Lund University.