Taking reference to Luxembourg’s coalition agreement of 2018 to support the LU Industry in getting access to the defence market, the Directorate of Defence of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the Ministry of the Economy, the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) and Luxinnovation join forces to offer a new funding opportunity to companies and research organisations looking to develop dual-use defence technologies (products, services and systems). The call supports the development and validation of innovative dual-use defence solutions potentially benefiting the national defence forces, international defence organisations (EDA, NATO), the defence forces of allied nations, as well as civilian research and local industry.
Following the European Union’s request to its members to invest 2% of their defence effort in R&D, the Luxembourg government in 2018 set up an interministerial cooperation between the Directorate of Defence, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research as well as the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) and Luxinnovation, in order to launch a dedicated call for R&D projects.
The call for projects aims in particular to support Luxembourg industry in integrating the EU defence value chain, through direct contact with EU defence ministries, but also to foster the creation of a defence industry community in Luxembourg’s priority sectors, as well as to promote Luxembourg’s technological capacities in the field of defence at the international level.
In view of the specificities of the economic fabric and the specialities of public research in Luxembourg, the call for projects is limited to the space and materials sectors and targets both companies and research centres in Luxembourg.
“Through the financing of R&D projects, Luxembourg Defence not only supports the Luxembourg economy and research, but also aims to finance dual-use projects, i.e. projects with both civilian and military applications,” said François Bausch at the launch.
The Minister for the Economy, Franz Fayot, added: “We have identified nearly 40 Luxembourg companies in the space and materials sector that have the required know-how to participate in this call for projects. This call will therefore help them to obtain visibility and important support for the development of dual-use technologies and offer them opportunities to engage in the European defence value chain.”
“Not least because of its dual-use orientation, the call launched today fits perfectly with the national research and innovation strategy. The thematic areas of space and materials research are areas where Luxembourg research institutions are already very active and have built up expertise over many years. Moreover, this call will further promote collaboration between public research institutions and companies, which is one of the priorities of the FNR and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research,” stressed Claude Meisch.
Submission & collaboration platform
To facilitate the emergence of projects and to support interested actors in their efforts, Luxinnovation, the national agency for the promotion of innovation, has set up an online platform where companies and public research actors are invited to submit their project ideas until 29 July 2022.
Visit research-industry-collaboration.lu
More information about the call available on FNR programme page
Webinar
Luxinnovation is organising an information session, in the form of a webinar, for companies and researchers interested in participating in the call for projects on 10 June 2022 at 11:00 a.m.
Find out more/register