From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbe at the centre of somethingbe at the centre of somethingif a person or thing is at the centre of something that is happening, they are involved in it more than other people or things He always seems to be at the centre of things.be at the centre of a row/dispute/controversy etc the businessman at the centre of the row over political donations → centre
Examples from the Corpus
be at the centre of something• The privatization of up to 40 state-owned companies was at the centre of the governments economic recovery plan.• Humiliation was at the centre of Jock Stein's disciplinary philosophy.• The problem of deciding what is relevant and important is at the centre of your task as a note-maker.• The duty officer at the Cabinet Office Briefing Room was at the centre of a web of information technology.• This is at the centre of the Iasiah's concern.• Perhaps more serious was the failure to understand, or accept, bureaucratic mores which were at the centre of the system.• The Charter will be at the centre of government's decision-making throughout the 1990s.• The inter-relationships between the flows will be at the centre of the proposed research. 