Changes caused by the knowledge economy, including the emergence of new idea flows in management, methods and structure of organizations, have led to a change in the roles and skills needed for researchers in organizations. As new age organizations focus on intellectual property, organizational aspirations and organizational change, the researchers, as the wealth creators, in order to quickly adapt to new situations and develop their competencies in the\ competitive market, need to constantly change and develop a new identity for themselves. Since competencies have a prudential feature through describing skills and behavioural approaches, identifying and explaining researchers’ competencies in research centres is of particular importance. Accordingly, the present paper seeks to identify the factors and indicators of researchers’ competencies in research centres using scientific methods and surveys and then identify, classify, and prioritize researchers’ important competencies using statistical methods. According to the results obtained from the present study, creativity and innovation, integration, accountability and customer orientation competencies have higher priorities; however, all identified important competencies have a significant positive distance to mean. With the help of the results of this study, researchers and managers can clarify expectations about each other.