The new tagline highlights both:
- the agency’s long-term objectives of fostering innovation and fuelling the international growth of Luxembourg companies
- its new key role in promoting the Luxembourg economy at the international level and attracting foreign direct investment.
Luxinnovation thus reinforced its activities by launching sector-specific business development strategies supported by market intelligence expertise and extensive marketing and communication efforts.
Objectives exceeded
During our last performance contract, concluded with its stakeholders for 2014-2017 (the Ministry of the Economy, the Ministry for Higher Education and Research, the Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Skilled Crafts and FEDIL – The Voice of Luxembourg’s Industry), Luxinnovation largely exceeded the objectives set up and developed its support programmes for national companies, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Since 2014, 62 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have participated in the performance programmes Fit 4 Innovation, Fit 4 Circularity and Fit 4 Growth. The Fit 4 Start programme, launched in 2015, has attracted over 600 applications from more than 30 countries. 25 ICT start-ups have participated in the first five editions and 17 have graduated with success. In total, Luxinnovation’s start-up team supported not less than 250 innovators and ventures.
Two new clusters
The Luxembourg Cluster Initiative pursued its development with more than 300 new members, and extended its activities with the launch of two new clusters: Creative Industries and Wood, joining the already existing five (Automobility, Biohealth, Eco Innovation, ICT, Materials & Manufacturing) managed by Luxinnovation.
With the support of these clusters, a number of partnerships, R&D collaborations and company-to-company introductions were done.
European and national funding
Luxinnovation intensified its support to organisations applying for funding from the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon 2020. The expertise provided by the agency helped Luxembourg organisations obtain a total of €72 million of Horizon 2020 funding since 2014.
At the national level, Luxinnovation helped 90 RDI (research, development and innovation) and environmental protection projects, implemented by 70 companies, to obtain state support.
The 2017 edition of Luxinnovation’s annual report provides further details on the major events and key figures of the year. It also includes several portraits of client companies that testify of how they have benefited from the support provided by the agency during the year.