EU funding & high profile grants


EU funding and high-profile grants

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Horizon Europe projects (2021 – 2027)

Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation and the central component of Framework Programme 9 (FP9) which covers the 2021-2027 period. The programme aims to tackle climate change, help achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boost the EU’s competitiveness and growth. A total of €29.8 million has been awarded by the European Commission to the University of Luxembourg since the start of the programme in 2021, distributed across 70 projects including three ERC grants secured since 2021.

Horizon 2020 (H2020) was the predecessor of Horizon Europe, covering the 2014-2020 period. Over this period, the University of Luxembourg secured 121 grants (a success rate of 16.7%) amounting to a total of €66.8 million awarded by the European Commission.

European Research Council (ERC) grants

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding body for frontier research. It provides funding for creative researchers of any nationality and age to run projects based across Europe with the aim of encouraging the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and supporting investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, based on scientific excellence. The ERC offers five main grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants, Synergy Grants and Proof of Concept Grants. Since 2014, the University of Luxembourg has been awarded 20 ERC grants, including three under Horizon Europe.

Current grant holders and chairs

  • Prof. Jean-Sébastien Coron
    (Advanced Grant)
  • Prof. Mark Podolskij
    (Consolidator Grant)
  • Prof. Paul Wilmes
    (Consolidator Grant)
  • Prof. Tegawendé Bissyande
    (Starting Grant)
  • Prof. Alexander Tkatchenko
    (Advanced Grant)
  • Prof. Alexander Tkatchenko
    (Proof of Concept Grant)

FNR PEARL Chairs

With the PEARL programme, the Luxembourg National Research Fund (Fonds National de la Recherche – FNR) offers Luxembourg research institutions attractive funding packages so that they can draw established and internationally recognised researchers to Luxembourg.

Current PEARL chair holders at the University of Luxembourg

  • PayPal-FNR PEARL Chair in Digital Financial Services (FinTech)
    Prof. Gilbert Fridgen
  • Chair in Digital History Advanced Research Projects Accelerator (DHARPA)
    Prof. Sean Takats
  • Chair in Digital Medicine (DigiHealthPD)
    Prof. Jochen Klucken
  • Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease Research (MiniAlz)
    Prof. Michel Heneka

FNR ATTRACT Fellows

The FNR ATTRACT programme is designed for researchers not yet established in Luxembourg, who have the potential to become leaders in their field of research. The scheme offers promising junior researchers the opportunity to set up their own research team within one of the country’s research institutions.

Current ATTRACT fellows at the University of Luxembourg

  • Modelling idiopathic Parkinson’s disease-associated somatic variation in dopaminergic neurons – Model IPD
    (ATTRACT Starting Grant)
    Anne Grünewald
  • Scientifically validated digital learning environments – DIGILEARN
    (ATTRACT Consolidator Grant)
    Pedro Cardoso-Leite
  • Surface and interface science on photovoltaic materials – SUNSPOT
    (ATTRACT Consolidator Grant)
    Alex Redinger
  • Microbial Biophysics of Rapid Adaptation in Changing Environments – MBRACE
    (ATTRACT Starting Grant)
    Anupam Sengupta
  • Environmental Cheminformatics to Identify Unknown Chemicals and their Effects –ECHIDNA
    (ATTRACT Consolidator Grant)
    Emma Schymanski
  • Public history as a new participatory model for interpreting the past
    (ATTRACT Consolidator Grant)
    Thomas Cauvin
  • Statistical Mechanics of Active Matter – SMAC
    (ATTRACT Starting Grant)
    Etienne Fodor
  • PRO-Active Policymaking for Equal Lives – PROPEL
    (ATTRACT Consolidator Grant)
    Lindsay Flynn
  • Quantum dynamics and control
    (ATTRACT Consolidator Grant)
    Aurélia Chenu

University of Luxembourg Rapid Incentive Scheme (RISE 2.0)

The University of Luxembourg’s Rapid Incentive Scheme (RISE2.0) provides support to researchers to help them produce successful Horizon Europe applications. By offering a grant of up to €20,000, it maximises the quality of proposals submitted under all Horizon Europe programmes, especially ERC and MSCA candidates.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Since 2014, the University of Luxembourg has been awarded 44 MSCA grants with a total EU contribution of €67.8 million for all beneficiaries, of which the University of Luxembourg has received €11.7 million.

Information on institutional validation processes

For EU funding:

The University has a dedicated EU Support Team in the Research Support Department that assists researchers in identifying funding opportunities and preparing, submitting and managing EU grants. For further details on the full service package that is available to you please contact the EU Support Team in the Research Support Department

For high-profile grants:

Candidates for high-profile grants are selected by means of a comprehensive, multi-level institutional validation procedure. Candidates are proposed by supporting professors and are interviewed by the corresponding department and the strategic alignment of the candidate’s research field with the long-term development plan of the department/faculty/centre is assessed. If the peer evaluation is positive, the candidate, the supporting professor and the research support staff prepare the candidate’s application for validation by the Rector. The Rector assesses applications in view of their quality, strategic fit with and impact on the University’s long-term development plan, and gender equality. For further detailed information on the process and submission deadlines please contact the Research Support Department.