NATIONALRESEARCH
AND INNOVATIONSTRATEGY
FOR LUXEMBOURG

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FOREWORD

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INTRODUCTION

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RESEARCH FOR LUXEMBOURG 2030 »HOW TO FULFILLTHE MISSION

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Coordinated governance, infrastructure and policies

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Research as a driver for innovation in industry,
services and the public sector

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Anchor Science in Society11

MISSION LUXEMBOURG 2030

WHERE TO INVEST

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Four interdisciplinary research priority
areas to prepare Luxembourg for the future

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	

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INDUSTRIAL AND SERVICE
TRANSFORMATIONPERSONALISEDHEALTHCARE

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SUSTAINABLE ANDRESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT

21st CENTURYEDUCATION

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The role of artificial intelligence –Luxembourg as a living laboratory for the use of AI

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Leveraging the impact of research in
Luxembourg through coordination with
Luxembourg’s development cooperation policy

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Roadmap for the further development
and adaptation of the national researchand innovation strategy

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FOREWORD

Luxembourg has reinvented itself a number of times in
the course of its history.
After being a mainly agrarian society, the country started to industrialize around the middle of the 19th century to then turn into one of the world’s leading steel
producers. The decline of the steel industry in the 1970s
opened the way for a second major economic development phase, namely the emergence of an importantfinancial sector, which continues to be a key engine oftoday’s economy. Around the turn of the millennium,
Luxembourg started to pave the way for its future, a future characterized by a knowledge-based society, witha broader and more diversified economic base. Luxembourg has ever since consistently invested in higher
education, research and development.
Today, Luxembourg is again reinventing itself in a context marked by developments that have an impact ona global scale. Climate change and its effects require
new production and resource management models.
Digitalisation implies fundamental changes in all areasof the economic and societal functioning. The data that
we generate in unimaginable quantities through ourconnected lifestyle is a new resource with a yet unexplored potential, raising also questions related to privacy. Ongoing migration flows lead to a rethinking of theconcept of identity within a society that perceives itself
as open to diversity and to exchanges beyond culturalborders.
All these developments imply opportunities as well as
risks. Luxembourg has the ambition to seize the opportunities lying ahead and mitigate the risks associatedto them. This ambition of seizing the opportunities is
associated to one major goal: initiate changes that will
ultimately be beneficial for the citizen through an improvement of the general quality of life, be it with regard to health, job satisfaction, training opportunities,
mobility, housing or environment.

To meet its ambitions, Luxembourg must resolutely invest in research and innovation, because the researchecosystem will be the main catalyst allowing us to seize
the aforementioned opportunities. Research will generate the innovations that can improve the quality oflife of tomorrow and it is by initiating collaborations between the research ecosystem and the different societal stakeholders that we will be able to introduce thoseinnovations into our daily life.
To meet this challenge, a small country like Luxembourg
must adopt a strategic approach that clearly defines the
expected contribution from its research ecosystem tosocietal development and maximizes the synergies andcomplementarities between the different actors of research and innovation.
The present National Research and Innovation Strategy aims to provide the general framework that will allow
for a targeted development of Luxembourg’s researchecosystem in the years to come. It aspires to maximise
its impact on the progress of the country and beyond
while positioning Luxembourg as a major international
player visible through its excellent research activities.
I am convinced that research will be one of the best ambassadors for a small country with a big impact.

Claude MeischMinister of Higher
Education and Research

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INTRODUCTION

Public research in Luxembourg is a young and dynamic
field and has progressed remarkably over the last two
decades. Once a leading steel producer, later a global
financial centre, Luxembourg started around the turnof the millennium to pave its way to the future, a future into a knowledge-based society with a broader
and more diversified economic base. Since then, an attractive and fertile research and innovation ecosystem
has emerged and gained international recognition in a
number of fields, such as ICT and data science, healthand biomedicine, materials or education. Time has
now come to consolidate those achievements and toaccompany research and innovation activities in such a
way that they serve the implementation of the Luxembourg 2030 vision of a sustainable knowledge society
and hence contribute to the future prosperity of thecountry.

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In 2016, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) carried out areview of the innovation policy of Luxembourg, inwhich it identified three main challenges, namely:→t o consolidate the progress Luxembourg madeover the past decade, and advance further tobecome a widely recognised location for research and innovation in Europe;→t o better link and orient more strategically thepromising initiatives in the area of researchand innovation that have been initiated during
the recent period of rapid growth and change;and→t o improve governance and steer the innovation system in a way that enhances coordination across ministries and agencies, strengthens linkages between public research centres
and the University of Luxembourg and helps
better target long-term funding to the mostpromising research areas and groups.

In the governmental programme 2018-2023 and in linewith the targets of the Europe 2020 strategy defined at
European Union level, the government aims at raisingpublic investment in research and development to 1%of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2023 for the
public and private sector, while “maximising the efficiency of the investment and the action deployed”.
To this end, the governmental programme foresees thedevelopment of a national higher education, researchand innovation strategy. According to the governmental programme, “the University and the public research
centres will dedicate the additional funding to a limited
number of priority areas with a strong socio-economic potential and which contribute to international visibility.” The programme also defines the priority fields
identified for the current legislative period, i.e. financeand in particular green finance, education, biomedicine,
information and communication technologies, innovative materials, environmental sciences and ecologicaltransition, and contemporary history. It mandates the
Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) to prepare “an updated list of national priority areas for public research, which will allow reinforcing critical mass”.
Furthermore, a trans- and interdisciplinary approachin public research as well as the transfer and use of research findings in priority areas should be encouraged
in order to foster economic diversification in priority
sectors such as the automobile industry, biotechnologies, environmental technologies, space technologies,
information and communication technologies andlogistics.

The present National Research and Innovation Strategy aims to contribute to the achievement of the goals
defined in the governmental programme and to address the challenges identified by the OECD.
The present strategy has been developed on the basisof a Revision of the National Priorities for Public Researchthat the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)
had been mandated to carry out and the conclusions ofwhich were presented to the Ministry of Higher Education and Research in April 2019. This review was complemented by consultations that were organised withthe public research institutions, within the framework of
a newly created coordination committee, and with all
the ministries concerned between April and November
2019. The findings were consolidated in collaboration
with the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR).
The current document focuses on the National Research and Innovation Strategy. A similar document will
follow on the national strategy for the organisation ofhigher education in Luxembourg.

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RESEARCH FOR LUXEMBOURG 2030

HOW TO FULFILLTHE MISSION8By 2030, Luxembourg aims to become a sustainable,
knowledge-driven, diverse and trusted digital society.
Today, we face many global challenges, including thoserelated to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peacemaking and peacekeeping
and access to justice for all. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations aim at addressing
those challenges and Luxembourg should actively contribute to those efforts. Likewise, the six Political Guidelines of the new European Commission (A European
Green Deal; An economy that works for people; A
Europe fit for the digital age; Protecting our European
way of life; A stronger Europe in the world; A new pushfor European democracy) will guide the Luxembourg
research agenda. Luxembourg also strives to seize theopportunities linked to the unprecedented growth ofdigital technologies and their applications, and to become one of the most advanced digital societies in theworld, with highest standards on data security, privacy
and ethical data processing.

The science, research and innovation sector must bepart of this vision. It must educate and attract the talentsthat a knowledge society needs, while valuing diversity.
It must also contribute to assuring a high standard ofliving, a secure and eco-responsible environment, aninnovative education system, better health care for the
population, a startup and innovation friendly economy
as well as a better understanding of Luxembourg’s diverse society. In this way, science, research and innovation can play a decisive role in achieving Luxembourg’svision for 2030.

In order to be able to fulfill this mission, the following elements are crucial for the
research and innovation sector:

coordinated governance,
infrastructures and policies

MISSION OF
RESEARCHa regulatory framework andfunding instruments that allow
research to act as a driver for
innovation in industry, services andthe public sector

an anchorage of sciencein society
9COORDINATED GOVERNANCE,INFRASTRUCTURES AND POLICIESIn its 2016 review of the Luxembourg innovation policy, the OECD identified improved governance of andenhanced coordination between the different actors of
the research and innovation sector as main challenges.
As one of the results, the aforementioned coordinationcommittee, chaired by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and composed of executive representatives of the University of Luxembourg, the threepublic research centres and the Luxembourg National
Research Fund (FNR), was created in view of becoming a central element for a coordinated governance of
all major public research actors. This committee has
provided input for the present strategy and will continue monitoring its progress. The committee will also aim
at taking joint actions, e.g. in view of the national andinternational promotion and branding of the Luxembourg research ecosystem under the label “Research
Luxembourg”, and in view of fostering Luxembourg’s
efforts in Science Diplomacy.
In order to continue encouraging excellence in research, the government will further develop the current
funding model of the public research institutions via
coordinated multiannual contracts including key performance indicators. These will be adapted in order tomonitor the different facets of the mission described in
the present strategy. In line with the targets of the Europe 2020 strategy and as set out in the governmental
programme 2018-2023, the government will aim at raising public investment in research and development to
1% of GDP. This 1% target will include public spending
in both the public and the private sectors, while public
sector spending is expected to reach 0.8% of GDP.
Besides excellence in research activities, another important means of advancing research and innovation andmaking Luxembourg attractive and competitive on aninternational level are excellent research infrastructures.
In this sense, a national High Performance Computing(HPC) facility, comprising the facilities of the publicresearch institutions complemented by the joint structure for the European high performance computing
joint undertaking (EuroHPC) to be hosted in Luxembourg, will continue to play an important role as will theIntegrated Biobank of Luxembourg (IBBL) of the LIH.
Luxembourg will also continue participation in research

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infrastructures at European level, such as ELIXIR, DARIAH, SHARE, EATRIS or PRACE and actively participate in the intergovernmental research organisation
EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratories). At
national level, Luxembourg will explore the idea of a national service provision model for services around thedata value chain that would serve the entire researchecosystem.
In terms of research culture, the government will strongly encourage and support the adherence to fundamental values, including ethics and integrity, and will support
the Open Science initiative in order to make researchmore open, global and collaborative and to bring it
closer to society. Efforts will also continue to be madein view of increasing the attractiveness of researcher careers in Luxembourg, through a value reward and incentive system that recognizes the full range of outcomesfrom scientific activities, including knowledge transfer,training and developing people, fostering teamwork
and communication. Concerted efforts will be made tosignificantly improve gender equality in public researchand to make diversity and inclusion one of the priorities. The government’s aim is to position Luxembourg
as a particularly attractive research location for the next
generation of bright talents, women and men.
In terms of policy, joint guidelines for the public research sector will be developed on sensible topics, suchas intellectual property, dual use of research results aswell as privacy and security, which play an increasingly
important role in research activities.

RESEARCH AS A DRIVER FOR INNOVATION IN INDUSTRY, SERVICES AND THE PUBLIC SECTOR
The Luxembourg government has made research andinnovation the cornerstones of its vision for the country’s future. In order to make research a driver for economic diversification and for innovation in industry, services and the public sector, an appropriate regulatory
framework is essential. The government will therefore
encourage the creation of public-public partnership
units between research institutions and interested
ministries, including a better integration of cultural institutes into public research activities, as well as the development of public-private partnership programmesin coordination with existing efforts by the Ministry of
Economy or by Luxinnovation. Appropriate funding
instruments will be implemented through the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR). In addition to
the already existing programmes to fund collaborative
research between the Luxembourg public research
institutions and private companies in Luxembourg or
abroad, new schemes will encourage joint funding withministries.

ANCHOR SCIENCE IN SOCIETY
On its way towards establishing Luxembourg as a leading knowledge-based society, the government has also
set itself the goal of solidly anchoring science in society
and fostering societal impact. Besides the continuationand further development of a variety of science promotion activities, citizen science will be strongly encouraged as an integral part of all research activities. Promoting science to economic and societal stakeholders
and raising awareness about the importance of knowledge and innovation is key and will be fostered, as willbe the interaction between researchers and policy makers to encourage evidence-based policymaking.

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MISSION LUXEMBOURG 2030

WHERE TO INVEST

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As has already been outlined, the government has set
itself ambitious goals regarding the increase of public
spending for research and development. This increaseof public investment in research will be realised in atargeted way. On the one hand, it will allow the consolidation and the further development of a researchecosystem delivering scientific excellence and making
Luxembourg internationally visible and attractive fortalented researchers. On the other hand, it will serve themid- and long-term objectives of the country, whether
they be ecological, societal or economic. The present
research and innovation strategy describes the areas forwhich further development and investment are considered important in order to reach these objectives.
The National Research and Innovation Strategy will
mainly be implemented through the funding programmes of the Luxembourg National Research Fund
(FNR), especially through the multi-annual thematic
research programme CORE, whose priority areas willbe aligned with the present strategy, but also throughtalent-attraction programmes and through mission-oriented research programmes. The latter are research
programmes aimed at addressing a concrete societal
or technological challenge, generally in an interdisciplinary way, through collaboration of different – public
and private – research institutions and possibly otherstakeholders.
The present strategy does not make the distinction
between fundamental and applied research, as bothtypes of research will be supported in the priority areas. It should also be mentioned that the priority areas
will not be the only areas in which research will be carried out and supported in Luxembourg. Luxembourg’s
public research ecosystem is composed of autonomous
institutions, which are supported through substantial
block grants provided by the government. All of these
institutions will develop or have developed, in the context of their autonomy, institutional strategies that areof course expected to take into account the frameworkprovided by the national research and innovation strategy. However, they can and should also set institutional

priorities that extend this framework in a meaningful
way. Furthermore, the Luxembourg National Research
Fund (FNR) will continue its funding schemes that support projects outside the priority areas (e.g. the OPEN
and INTER programmes) necessary for a trusted data-driven economy.

FOUR INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PRIORITY AREAS TO
PREPARE LUXEMBOURG FOR THE
FUTUREAt the top level, the national research and innovation
strategy defines four research priority areas, which haveemerged to be of particular importance for the societal,
ecological and economic development of the country.
These areas are not considered as being distinct andindependent from each other but as areas that mutually influence each other, so that the sub-themes thatdefine each area can also have ramifications into otherareas. The implementation of the research strategy will
therefore put a particular emphasis on interdisciplinary
projects, which take into account that each of the four
broad research priority areas will benefit from results
and projects situated in one or more of the other areas.
The four chosen research priority areas should guarantee that beyond a development of its GDP, Luxembourg can warrant for a continuous and sustainable development of the well-being of its population, including
notably health, environmental and educational factors.

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INDUSTRIAL
AND SERVICE
TRANSFORMATIONPERSONALISEDHEALTHCARE

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SUSTAINABLE
AND RESPONSIBLE
DEVELOPMENT

21st CENTURYEDUCATION

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INDUSTRIAL
AND SERVICE
TRANSFORMATION

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The upcoming digitalisation will imply fundamental
changes for industry and service providers that are active in Luxembourg. The country has the ambition to
become a knowledge-driven data economy actively
seeking to diversify its economic activities taking up thelatest technological developments and providing highvalue added. The research carried out in this area should
provide the scientific basis for such a development. It
encompasses research in the industrial fields in which
Luxembourg wants to consolidate and further develop
its assets, for example in material science, space industry, or in the field of automation and robotics.

Data modelling and simulation are seen as a key enabling technology in this area. It also includes new communication and computer systems and the associatedchallenges regarding cybersecurity needed for a trusted
datadriven economy in an ever more connected world.
Furthermore, this research seeks to bring new perspectives to Luxembourg’s most important economic
sectors, like the financial industry, through the development of key technologies in the fintech/regtech area
or in the field of distributed ledger technologies. The
latter can also be applied in the field of “govtech” in the
public sector.

Autonomous and intelligent
systems and robotics for earthand space

Fintech/RegTech andtransformative applications of
distributed ledger technologies

Future computer &communication systems

Fundamental tools anddata-driven modelling andsimulation

Space telecommunications,
earth observation and spaceresources

Trusted data-driven economy
and critical systems

Integrative Materials scienceand technology

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PERSONALISEDHEALTHCARE

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Health is considered to be a key indicator of well-being
and Luxembourg has the ambition to provide excellent
healthcare to its population and to be a frontrunner in
the implementation of the latest health technologies.
Especially in the field of personalised data-driven digital medicine, Luxembourg wants to be among theleading countries in the world. Luxembourg therefore
needs biomedical research that will ultimately be beneficial to the patient and contribute to the consolidation of an innovative, sustainable and efficient healthsystem. Following this logic, translational medicine willplay an important role in the medical research carriedout in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg will continue to promote the important
contributions to personalised medicine from research,
carried out notably under the European programmes
Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, in order to speed
up the development of more effective preventive anddiagnostic tools as well as better and safer medicines
for patients.
The perspective on health will nevertheless not be limited to a purely biological or medical perspective, butwill include socio-economic and behavioural aspects
considered in a longitudinal perspective throughout thelifespan, which should permit an emphasis on disease
prevention and behavioural changes.

Complex biomedical
systems – data and models

Understanding, preventing,and treating the health-diseasetransition

Precision medicine,including environmental,
lifestyle and socio-economic
factors

Data-driven healthcare

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21ST CENTURYEDUCATION

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Education is another major cornerstone for the well-being of a society, as it forms the basis for employment,
societal participation and ultimately for our democratic
functioning. It is foreseeable that education will undergo major changes throughout the 21st century, for different reasons.
Educational systems are currently educating for unknown professional environments, as the upcoming
digitalisation will dramatically increase the speed ofcreation of new job profiles, while existing job profiles
might disappear. The fast pace of technological developments therefore implies the need to better monitor
the skills gap existing between need and supply and to
train the population in new, highly dynamic digital skills.
Digital tools and technologies thus become the content of new training programmes while also being used
as a means of delivery for these new contents. In termsof key competencies, transversal skills, such as problem
solving and communication skills, are more and morevalued, as they form a skillset that is needed in order tocope with these fast-paced developments and changes.

Lifelong Learning changes from a model that historically implied the update of existing skills to a model inwhich completely new skillsets have to be acquired in
short periods of time in order to cope with the more
fundamental changes in career paths that we will see inthe future. These new educational challenges are added to the already existing ones of providing high-quality, inequality-avoiding initial training to a very heterogeneous and multilingual school population.
Luxembourg will therefore invest in educational research in order to develop innovative, digitally enhanced learning environments that will be beneficial
to a diverse and multilingual school population andthus contribute to equal educational opportunities.
Luxembourg also has the ambition to be among thefrontrunners in the field of adult education and develop
the needed research programmes in order to be well
prepared for the upcoming major trends of upskilling
and reskilling the workforce.

Innovative digitallyenhanced learning andassessment environments

Equality of educational
opportunity

Learning in a multilingualand diverse society

Adult education,
up/re-skilling
and lifelong learning

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SUSTAINABLE ANDRESPONSIBLE
DEVELOPMENT

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Luxembourg fully subscribes to the sustainable development goals of the United Nations and will contribute
through its research activities to a sustainable development from an ecological, economic and societal perspective, in line with the ten priority fields of action of
the National Plan for Sustainable Development. In theecological field, a focus will be on research in the context of a transition to sustainability and climate change.
Luxembourg has the ambition to become a model
country for the green transition. To this end, research in
the field of sustainable construction will play an important role in order to integrate energy efficiency, renewable energy, aspects related to environmental health andcircularity into new and existing buildings. A focus will
also be on the integration of renewable energies and ofelectro-mobility into the energy management system
thanks to smart grids. Sociological aspects related tothe adoption of a more climate-friendly lifestyle as well
as spatial planning and mobility concepts will be otherimportant research topics.
Luxembourg will develop technologies to continuously monitor the effects of climate change on ecologicalsystems and biodiversity and use this monitoring inorder to model future scenarios allowing for the country’s best adaptation to a changing environment (e.g.
in view of agricultural and forestry activities, but also in
prevention of extreme events or with regard to water
availability).
Economically, Luxembourg will innovate through research on new sustainable economic instruments andmodels, consuming fewer resources and producing lessnegative impact on the environment, especially in theareas of green and sustainable finance and circular andsharing economy.
A socially sustainable development is particularly important for a very diverse and multilingual country
like Luxembourg and therefore research on different
aspects of social cohesion, such as the social consequences of migration, of the energy transition and oflabour market developments, but also questions of cultural identities, cultural heritage and nationhood will be
included in this research area. Increased collaboration
will be sought with cultural institutes on research topics related to cultural heritage, including digital aspects
thereof.

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Finally, increasing digitalisation raises the question how
all these new developments and disruptive technologies can be responsibly implemented within an innovative legal environment in Luxembourg and Europe. In
this context, questions about regulations for a responsible and privacy-respecting use of data, as well as ethicalquestions around data use and disruptive technologies
such as artificial intelligence will be in the focus of Luxembourg’s research efforts. Indeed, the transformations
towards the 2030 objectives require a retooling of thelegal framework.
The objective of becoming one of the most advanced
digital societies in the world in terms of sustainable
development, governed by inclusive democratic decision-making processes, requires innovative solutions
in Luxembourg and European regulation. Examples
include the adaptation of national and European legal
systems to a data-driven and artificial intelligence-led

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decision-making process, a legal framework that canfoster the development of a data-driven and personalised healthcare environment, or the protection of theenvironment in a digitalised world that requires an indepth rethinking of applicable standards both from anational perspective and in the light of the EU Digital
Single Market. This strategy will therefore promote advanced legal research in the areas mentioned, including
the development and implementation of tools to establish a legal framework that provides legal certainty
for both citizens and businesses in the context of future
developments. This is an important element in unlocking the full modernisation potential of technologicalprogress for the benefit of society by providing the regulatory framework for a knowledge-driven economy
and society.

Climate change: energy
efficiency and smart energymanagement/resilient ecoand agrosystems

Social: migration and social
cohesion/cultural identities,
cultural heritage andnationhood

Economic: green andsustainable finance/circularand shared economy

Responsible development:
regulations and ethics for adata-driven society

25THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – LUXEMBOURG AS A LIVING LABORATORY FOR THE USE
OF AI

ROADMAP FOR THE FURTHER
DEVELOPMENT AND ADAPTATION
OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH
AND INNOVATION STRATEGY

The present strategy fully subscribes to the artificial intelligence strategy of the Government. Artificial intelligence is considered as a key enabling technology thatwill be used in each of the main four research priority
areas. In line with the national strategy on artificial intelligence, Luxembourg has the ambition to scale AI for
selected use cases at country level (for example in thefields of personalised healthcare or personalised education) and to become a living laboratory, showcasing
how this technology can be used at country-level forthe benefit of societal development. As a small country, Luxembourg can benefit in this context from its
size and its ability to scale up more rapidly than larger
countries, in order to become internationally visible asa frontrunner for the implementation of this disruptive
technology. Moreover, Luxembourg can contribute to
the elaboration of the standards of tomorrow by developing a legal framework for the use of AI based on
ethical principles and by testing its implementation.

This national research and innovation strategy should
not be considered as fixed and unalterable, but as an
ongoing process. During the first half of 2020, the third
edition of the “Assises de la Recherche” will bring together important actors of research and innovation as
well as societal stakeholders in Luxembourg in order tofurther discuss and consolidate the strategy. While theoverarching ideas and principles underlying the strategy, and the four interdisciplinary research priority areas
forming the backbone of it, should remain unchanged,
the sub-themes within the four areas may be further
discussed and may evolve in light of those discussions
and of future developments.

LEVERAGING THE IMPACT OF RESEARCH LUXEMBOURG THROUGH
COORDINATION WITH LUXEMBOURG’S DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION POLICY
The country has the ambition to leverage the global
impact of the efforts made at national level through asystematic scrutiny of the research results for their potential use and transfer to Luxembourg’s development
cooperation efforts. Luxembourg is indeed among thecountries making the highest per capita contribution todevelopment cooperation and many challenges thatthe development cooperation policy tries to address
can benefit from technologies and results stemmingfrom the research ecosystem. The process of transfer
and adaptation of the output of the research ecosystem will therefore be implemented in a more systematic way and potentially combined with specific funding
schemes in order to be beneficial in the context of cooperation development.

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They should be reviewed on a regular basis over theyears to come through input provided by the coordinating committee chaired by the Ministry of Higher
Education and Research, by the scientific board of the
Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) and bygovernmental, economic and societal stakeholders.

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