“Excellence in research is not just a goal, it is a journey. It is about pushing the boundaries of knowledge, fostering innovation, and creating tangible benefits for society. […] SnT Partnership Day is a shining example of how [our national research and innovation] strategy is put into action. For 15 years, SnT has been at the forefront of collaborative research in one of the key domains of modern interdisciplinary research, that is ICT.” With these words, Luxembourg’s Minister of Higher Education and Research, Stéphanie Obertin, lauded the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg in her opening speech at SnT Partnership Day 2024.
The SnT flagship event took place on 07 May 2024 at the European Convention Centre Luxembourg and gathered more than 500 participants from the financial, space and ICT industries, the public sector, and research. Under the motto “Research for a Better Tomorrow”, SnT celebrated its 15th anniversary. The event featured speeches from Luxembourg’s Minister for Research and Higher Education, Stéphanie Obertin, the Rector of the University of Luxembourg, Prof. Jens Kreisel, and the Director of SnT, Prof. Yves Le Traon. The general focus of the event was SnT’s partnerships, which are collaborative research projects with the public and the private sectors. These partnerships promote innovative ideas for a better tomorrow.
More than 500 participants attended SnT Partnership Day 2024.
Partnership Day 2024 was hosted by Dr. Carlo Duprel, Head of SnT Technology Transfer Office and Partnership, who kicked off the event: “Today we are going to celebrate the excellent work of our researchers and the pioneering work they undertake together with our partners. Research for a Better Tomorrow: This is this year’s motto. In a world where we stumble from one crisis to another, we need research. We need cool-headed fact-based decision making. In science and technology, we are also experiencing challenging times, where the innovation cycles rapidly shorten.” In his opening speech, Duprel addressed the rise of technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics, as well as possible future scenarios, and emphasised the need for research for a better tomorrow.
In his opening speech, the Rector of the University of Luxembourg, Prof. Kreisel, gave insights into his mission to Silicon Valley where he strives to learn how the digital future looks like. He reflected on the success factors of Silicon Valley and emphasised that we need to think as an ecosystem of science, business and investment: “An ecosystem is a social network between companies and people, and it seems that the term social network has been invented for Luxembourg. We should [see] this as a strength […]: Science, technology, and innovations have to go hand in hand. No researcher, no institution, no country can find the answers to the big questions alone. […] With SnT, in particular, Luxembourg has a strategic instrument to accelerate such an ecosystem. A strategic instrument that benefits from excellent research.”
SnT’s new Director Prof. Le Traon took the stage to reflect on SnT’s achievements and celebrate its 15th anniversary. With a brief introduction to himself, he gave insights into the roots of his career aspirations to become a researcher. He also shed new light on the SnT vision: “Our vision is to be a leading international research and innovation centre in ICT. But I realised that this vision is too short. […] What makes SnT unique is not only successful research, but also that it has developed a very unique partnership model to collaborate with industry. Together with our partners from the public and private sectors, we are trying to address the key research challenges, which are also of interest for the partners. This is what makes SnT unique: targeting both excellence in research and innovation.”
SnT celebrated its 15th anniversary. From left to right: Yves Elsen, Prof. Maria Leptin, Director Prof. Yves Le Traon, Minister Stéphanie Obertin, Prof. Björn Ottersten, Rector Prof. Jens Kreisel.
“It has been 15 years of relationships, 15 years of research and 15 years of innovation thanks to the talents of all the people who were and are at SnT contributing to this success. […] Today, we can say that SnT is a productive asset for the country: […] Thanks to the constant support of the University, we can say that for one euro that comes from the University, two additional euros are being attracted from funding sources such as the Luxembourg National Research Fund’s (FNR), but also from partners,” Prof. Le Traon emphasised. He also welcomed 10 new SnT partnerships and additionally stated: “I would like to express my gratitude to all historical partners, who have trusted us for so many years.”
Prof. Le Traon continued to highlight some of SnT’s milestone achievements in its strategic research areas, such as the launch of the Competence Hub in Research in Cybersecurity and Cyber Defence and the National Centre of Excellence in Financial Technologies (NCER-FT). Another important milestone was yesterday’s launch of the research programme “Autonomous Systems for Land, Air and Space” (ATLAS), which is funded by the FNR Industrial Partnership Block Grant combined with co-funding from multiple partners. All of these initiatives were accompanied by a record number of publications (842) in highly renowned academic venues (35% in top 10% venues) reflecting the excellence of SnT’s research.
Prof. Maria Leptin, President of the ERC, delivering her keynote on research and innovation in the EU.
Prof. Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council (ERC), took the floor to deliver her keynote. The ERC, launched by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. “We support frontier research as long as it yields ground-breaking discoveries. Such discoveries can be made not only in fundamental research, but also in applied research. […] The ERC has given a new dimension to funding programmes that complements the traditional top-down approaches. […] The philosophy of the ERC rests on the idea that researchers know best what the most promising research areas are that they should explore.” In a following discussion with Prof. Björn Ottersten of SnT, Prof. Leptin reflected e.g. on how we can streak balance between openness in research and security issues in challenging times.
Following the keynote, five SnT researchers held flashtalks about the projects they are conducting, in particular:
• Dr. Nadia Pocher held a session on “Interdisciplinary Co-Design of Emerging Digital Financial Systems“.
• Rafieh Mosaheb held a session on “Making Electronic Voting Systems Secure Against Quantum Computer”.
• Salijona Dyrmishi held a session on “Identifying Vulnerabilities: Securing AI Systems Through Testing”.
• Dr. Chandan Sheemar held a session on “Joint Communications & Sensing for 6G Non-Terrestrial Networks”.
• Dr. Jose Luis Sanchez-Lopez held a session on “Situationally-Aware Robots: A Revolution Across Industries”.
All attendees were then invited to join guided tours visiting the 30+ demo stands, where SnT researchers presented their projects. The demos showcased research projects in fields such as quantum communication, satellite communications, space robotics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, autonomous vehicles, FinTech solutions, energy transition, and many others. The entrepreneurial Acceleration Programme of SnT presented some of the projects it supports. At the closing reception, researchers and practitioners had the opportunity to network and identify potential for collaboration – for a better tomorrow.
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