Facts and figures

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a small country of 2,586 km¹ sitting between Belgium, France and Germany and just a few hours from each capital. Its border town of Schengen at the junction of three countries gave its name to the visa-free travel agreement covering much of Europe. Luxembourg is an important European centre and hosts institutions including the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Court of Auditors.

The University of Luxembourg was founded in 2003 and is the only public university in the country. It attracts 7,000 students from 130 different countries every year.² 

Around 46% of the adult population have attained a tertiary education.³ In 2021, about 5,700 people in Luxembourg were employed in R&D work.⁴

The European Patent Office granted 195 patents with first patentees residing in Luxembourg in 2022.⁵

Gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) dropped from pre-COVID levels of 1.18% to 1.04% in 2021.⁶  The main sectors financing GERD were business enterprise providing 44%, and the national government (47%).⁷ Total R&D spending rose 34% between 2012 and 2021 to reach 753 million euros.⁸

The Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) is the primary funder of research in Luxembourg and invests both public funds and private donations into research projects with an emphasis on core strategic areas including personalized healthcare. FNR also advises the Luxembourg government on research policy and strategy.⁹

Researchers are also eligible for funding through Horizon Europe projects, European Research Council grants, and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions¹⁰ as well as EMBO.