Research Luxembourg is mobilising

How many vaccinated people in Luxembourg want to get a booster? How many parents want to have their children vaccinated? Answers to these and other questions on the topic of vaccination are provided by a current representative survey conducted by FNR/science.lu in cooperation with researchers from Luxembourg.

We understand that researchers and research teams may go through a difficult period triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic During 2020 and 2021, research projects have temporarily been suspended or delayed and key parts of projects may have to be postponed for a significant amount of time. Therefore, the FNR wishes to offer flexibility in the handling of grants and grant proposals for projects affected by the pandemic. *last update 8 February 2022*

Following the fast-track FNR COVID-19 Call in 2020, the FNR has opened a new FNR COVID-19 funding instrument. There is no Call per se – projects can be submitted anytime from 21 April 2021 to 15 October 2021. Retained projects will be funded with up to 125,000 EUR for a maximum of 12 months.  

FNR coordinates Luxembourg’s €800,000 participation in the philanthropic initiative COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.

Following the second deadline of the FNR’s COVID-19 Fast Track Call, 21 of 55 eligible projects have been retained for funding, an FNR commitment of 1.12 MEUR.

CON-VINCE, a national research project aiming to evaluate the prevalence and dynamics of the spread of the COVID-19 disease within the Luxembourgish population, was launched at the beginning of April under the umbrella of the Research Luxembourg COVID-19 Task Force. Following the successful recruitment and first testing effort of more than 1800 participants over the age of 18, a first publication has now been uploaded on the preprint server medRxiv (Reference: MEDRXIV/2020/092916) and will be soon submitted for peer-reviewed scientific publication.

Various partner agencies of the FNR have launched calls for proposals concerning Sars-CoV-2 offering international consortia to submit proposals for research projects tackling COVID19. The calls will be handled under the lead-agency procedure and FNR is prepared to finance the Luxembourg part (eligible to FNR support) of successful projects.

Following the communication of the results of the first round of the FNR COVID-19 Call, the FNR launches the second Call. Deadline to submit proposals to FNR is Monday, 11 May 2020, 17:00 CET. 

In close cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of Health, the  Research Luxembourg COVID-19 Task Force has developed a “Large Scale Testing Strategy” based on a voluntary diagnostic test accessible to the population, including cross-border commuters of the Greater Region. The goal: increase testing to cover the entire Luxembourg population.

The Research Luxembourg COVID-19 task force has announced the start of “Predi-COVID”, a study that aims to identify important risk factors and biomarkers associated with COVID-19 severity and long-term health consequences of the disease in Luxembourg. The FNR supports the study with 1.85 MEUR.

Following the first deadline of the FNR’s COVID-19 Fast Track Call, 30 of 69 eligible projects have been retained for funding, an FNR commitment of 1.52 MEUR.

For the current FNR COVID19 fast track call, the FNR aims to foster interdisciplinary projects and institutional cooperation among public research institutions. In the project ideas on the national COVID-10 Platform, we have noticed a significant number of project ideas that could complement each other and would lend themselves to synergies. Therefore, the FNR decided of offer a top-up funding of up to 30.000 EUR for projects where complementary expertise from different fields are bundled.

The FNR has launched a special fast-track Call to provide initial funding for research projects on COVID-19, with a first deadline of Tuesday, 14 April 2020. The aim is to (co-)support short-term projects, or the starting phase of long-term projects. In order to be eligible for the FNR Call, short descriptions of project ideas must first be published on the COVID-19 platform by 8 April.

‘Research Luxembourg’, the initiative of the main players of Luxembourg public research, has launched its website. In addition to being a platform to promote Luxembourg research to an international audience, the site also features a dedicated section about the COVID-19 task force.

As researchers work on numerous new projects to contribute to the fight against COVID-19, Research Luxembourg has launched a national COVID-19 platform to coordinate research projects and collaborations. The FNR will soon open a special fast-track Call for proposals to support research efforts.

Research Luxembourg, a joint initiative of the main players in Luxembourg’s public research sector, is mobilising its knowledge and its human and material resources to help address the challenge of COVID-19. A task force has been set up in order to offer the health system the combined expertise available within the Luxembourg public research sector (LIH, LISER, LIST, LNS, University, FNR, under the coordination of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research).

Due to the restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the FNR offers flexibility in the handling of grants and grant proposals.

Due to the precautions associated with the spread of the coronavirus and the closure of schools and the University, please note that the vast majority of FNR staff will be working from home from 16 – 27 March. Please contact FNR staff via email during this time. Thank you for your understanding.