Luxembourg (Europe)

The University climbed 27 places in this year’s QS World University Rankings 2025, a major jump from the 2024 ranking. Uni.lu now occupies the 355th position, out of more than 1,500 universities included in the ranking, and is among the top 24% worldwide.

Decisive scores that weighed in this significant progression include the University’s faculty-student ratio, employment outcomes and international research network. Indeed, the University occupies 1,500 academic staff for 7,500 students, which allows for personalised teaching and small-numbered classes. A recent graduate survey showed that nearly 60% of master students were employed or self-employed, while more than 50% of alumni decide to stay in Luxembourg after their studies.

This spring brought good news, as the University’s efforts in education and research quality were rewarded. Notably, Uni.lu jumped up four positions in the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2024, from 24th to 20th position.

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Infinite Reality (iR), the Metaverse entertainment and innovation company, announced today a strategic relationship with the University of Luxembourg's Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability, and Trust (SnT) to introduce a global, open metaverse, from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. This is a significant piece of the company’s European expansion plans.

Benefitting from the Grand Duchy’s digital capacities and the country’s wide range of business support, this initiative, which is supported by Luxembourg’s national innovation agency Luxinnovation, seeks to secure Luxembourg as the centre of Metaverse innovation in Europe. Inline with its forward-looking approach, the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy strives to seize the latest technological developments to achieve the digital economy of tomorrow.

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Examining the entire spectrum of software development, from its very early stage of inception to maintenance, software engineering (SE) is part of an industry in constant movement, and a discipline distinguished for its impact in the research world. In order to gain a deeper understanding of its evolution in the latter, a bibliometric study of software engineering themes, scholars and institutions has been published in the October 2021 edition of the Journal of Systems and Software. 

With the study spanning over the years 2013 to 2020, it shines a light on the available literature and its topics, scholars as well as institutions, from the researchers’ angle. As a member of the narrow circle of the most active institutions in software engineering research, the University of Luxembourg is ranked tenth in the top 50 universities worldwide, highlighting its solid reputation built over time, and gaining the respect of its peers. 

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C'est la deuxième forme de cancer la plus répandue au Luxembourg, chez les hommes comme chez les femmes, dont la détection rapide peut améliorer l'efficacité du traitement.

C'est pour cette raison que depuis dix ans, l'Université du Luxembourg a lancé des recherches scientifiques dans ce domaine, notamment en collaboration avec la Biobank, la Fondation Cancer ou encore le Fonds National de la Recherche.

Les biomarqueurs sont les indicateurs biologiques de maladies bien précises. Ils attirent l'attention sur les modifications de certaines protéines qui apparaissent lors de ces maladies, mais jusqu'à présent, aucun biomarqueur n'était connu pour ce type de cancer.

Ces dernières années, des chercheurs de l'Université du Luxembourg ont réussi à découvrir un nouveau biomarqueur très prometteur pour le cancer de l'intestin. Ces indicateurs permettraient, surtout à un stade précoce de la maladie, de classer les patients en groupes selon leur degré de risque, "élevé" ou "faible". Une telle classification pourrait aider le docteur à prescrire le traitement le plus adapté au patient.

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“UNIVERSEH – The European Space University for Earth and Humanity”, an alliance of five higher education institutions, was officially launched in a virtual inauguration ceremony today. UNIVERSEH was established in November 2020 to develop new ways of collaboration in the field of space, within the “European Universities” initiative by the European Commission.

UNIVERSEH associates Université Fédérale de Toulouse (France), Université du Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf (Germany), Luleå tekniska universitet (Sweden) and Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza im. Stanisława Staszica w Krakowie (Poland). Université Fédérale de Toulouse oversees the general coordination of the alliance, while each partner institution has the responsibility to manage specific areas. Under the team leadership of Prof. Eric Tschirhart, the University of Luxembourg will focus on stimulating entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills among students through university-business cooperation, as well as strengthening the sustainability of the network and its communication.

In all its areas of activity (science, engineering, economy, social and human sciences, entrepreneurship and innovation, medicine and culture), UNIVERSEH will contribute to the vision of the European Education Area, notably in supporting job creation, industrial growth and resolving societal challenges. UNIVERSEH also envisions to make the space sector more sustainable and to help maintaining the EU’s autonomy and a top position in the Space and New Space domain.

UNIVERSEH focuses on four pillars of activity: Space for societal challenges, Space sustainability, Space exploration, Space resources and settlement.

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INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH-ORIENTED UNIVERSITY
Luxembourg ranks 12th among the 414 universities included in the study. The young institution, founded as late as 2003, stands out in particular for its international outlook, for which it scores 99.7 out of 100.

“The university is well known for providing multilingual programmes in French, German and English and several master’s and doctoral programmes are taught entirely in English,” comments the study. “It is regarded as one of the most international universities in Europe with students coming from about 120 countries from around the world. All undergraduate students are expected to spend a semester abroad and the university collaborates with nearly 90 universities around the world.”

The research-oriented university focuses in particular on computational sciences, biomedicine, European law and educational services. It also scores high in terms of citations (75.8 out of 100).

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The University of Luxembourg is an important pillar in the research effort to fight the spread of COVID-19. It is one of the participating partners in the research activities coordinated by Research Luxembourg, working on multiple interdisciplinary projects.

In a first FNR COVID-19 Fast Track Call, 16 projects from the University of Luxembourg have recently been retained for funding, representing a financial commitment of 780,500 euros. This programme to address COVID-19 is based on a fast-track mechanism that allows the support of research projects requiring an immediate start during the current crisis.

The research projects led by the University address biomedical and life sciences; humanities and social sciences; law and economics; as well as material sciences. Below please find an exhaustive overview of the University projects and their abstracts.

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On January 20 2019, the Europe Direct Information Centre (EDIC) University of Luxembourg was inaugurated by Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights.

The EDIC University of Luxembourg office is located at the heart of the Greater Region,(Luxembourg and neighbouring regions in France, Belgium and Germany). It is ideally situated on Belval campus to interact with students, researchers, teachers and the general public on issues related to the European Union’s history and current affairs. It will also help reflect on potential future challenges. Dr Elena Danescu, coordinator of the EDIC office, said: “We are here at the crossroad of the Greater Region, and this EDIC office is open to all visitors. As a University, we are focused on research, but it is also our role to be open towards and interact with residents of our region and visitors.“

The EDIC office will organise lectures, seminars, discussions and exhibitions and offer information on the history of European integration, the EU institutions and the workings and policies of Europe. The EDIC University of Luxembourg will contribute to citizen education, especially among young people, raising awareness about the European Union’s policies and helping develop teaching and research on European integration in Luxembourg.

The EDIC office is located in the Luxembourg Learning Centre, the University library. Prof. Stéphane Pallage, Rector of the University of Luxembourg said: “Europe faces numerous challenges, as leaders today converge or diverge on their vision for the future and even on values such as freedom of expression. While it has come far, Europe has yet to build consensus of values, European values.”

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Für die Erforschung der Wechselwirkung zwischen mikrobiellen Biomolekülen und dem menschlichen Immunsystem bei Parkinson- und Rheumapatienten erhält Paul Wilmes den begehrten ERC Consolidator Grant.

Paul Wilmes hat sehr viel Erfahrung auf dem Gebiet der Mikrobiomforschung.

Paul Wilmes untersucht gemeinsam mit seiner Arbeitsgruppe „Eco-Systems Biology“ am Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) der Uni Luxemburg die molekularen Wechselwirkungen zwischen dem Mikrobiom - der Mikrobengemeinschaft im menschlichen Darm - und menschlichen Zellen. Die Forscher haben hierzu eine Reihe von hochauflösenden Messmethoden entwickelt, die jetzt im ExpoBiome Projekt bei verschiedenen Krankheiten zum Einsatz kommen. „Bei rheumatoider Arthritis wissen wir, dass eine Fastentherapie bei vielen Patienten eine deutliche Linderung der Symptome bewirkt", sagt Paul Wilmes.

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Digital technologies are changing the face of society, including how our financial services work.

Given how deeply digital technologies affect financial services, online payment platform PayPal, Luxembourg's National Research Fund (FNR) and the University of Luxembourg are launching a partnership, titled "PayPal-FNR PEARL Chair". The chair was presented on Monday.

The entire programme will be led by Professor Gilbert Fridgen. As of January 2020, Fridgen and his research team will examine financial services in a digital environment in detail. The team will analyse processes, as well as accompany and structure them.

As Fridgen explained, the team will focus on new technologies, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, putting a special focus on Blockchain and distributed ledger technology. He told attendees on Monday: "I will endeavour to find out what these technologies mean for the economy and for firms working in financial services." 

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ESORICS 2019 Conference: Researchers at the University of Luxembourg have discovered a flaw in the security standard used in biometric passports (e-passports) worldwide since 2004. This standard, ICAO 9303, allows e-passport readers at airports to scan the chip inside a passport and identify the holder.

Most passports today use the standard ICAO 9303, which is issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The standard is designed to ensure that the privacy and unlinkability of the passport holder is protected to the highest degree. Unlinkability ensures that an attacker could not distinguish if two elements are closely related.

Dr Ross Horne, Prof. Sjouke Mauw, PhD candidate Zach Smith and Master student Ihor Filimonov tested the standard. They discovered a flaw which allows specific non-authorised equipment to access passport data. “With the right device, you can scan passports in close vicinity and reidentify previously observed passport holders, keeping track of their movements”, Dr Horne explains. “Thus, passport holders are not protected against having their movements traced by an unauthorised observer.”

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The University of Luxembourg will establish a new interdisciplinary centre (IC) for researching complex environmental systems. In an ideas competition or “Concours d'idées”, the University is inviting outstanding researchers from around the world to submit by 8 January 2023 concepts for the development of the centre. The scientists with the most innovative and most convincing ideas will be invited to apply as the founding director of the centre. This new major project is the centrepiece of the focus area “Sustainable and Social Development” – one of the three core research areas of the University, along with “Digital Transformation” and “Medicine & Health”.

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The University of Luxembourg and the government have teamed up to launch a quantum communications laboratory next year as part of plans submitted to Brussels under the NextGenerationEU package.

Luxembourg is receiving €93m under the NextGenerationEU recovery package that aims to restart economies after the covid-19 pandemic. It will use the money to fund the decarbonisation of traffic as well as affordable and sustainable housing projects.

But the country also plans to boost digitalisation and develop next generation quantum communication infrastructure, which is thought to be safe from hackers as it uses the laws of quantum physics to protect data.

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New space movement.
Over the last three decades, Luxembourg has created a thriving scene of space activities where more than 50 companies have emerged.

The new space movement has given rise to a private sector making it possible for more and more businesses to reach for the stars.

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Advanced Materials are among the important Key Enabling Technologies (KET), which are critical drivers and accelerators to allow European industries to retain competitiveness. With fascinating chemical and physical properties, new advanced materials have the potential to introduce new functionalities and improved properties to new products. As an example, advanced materials are the basis of sensors, which are ubiquitous in our modern society, more broadly speaking, of the Internet of Things.

Both, the University of Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), have an internationally recognised expertise in Materials Science, which is today one of the fields of excellence of Luxembourg’s research and technology. Based on this, the two main actors of public Research in Luxembourg have decided to join forces to take full advantage of their complementary expertise by creating Luxembourg’s first interinstitutional research group (IRG): Multifunctional Ferroic Materials. The IRG is one of the instruments of the recently signed bilateral agreement between the University and LIST to foster synergistic collaborations in research and education, namely doctoral education.

The mission of this IRG is to conduct cutting-edge research on multifunctional ferroic materials, which present multiple physical properties such as magnetism, ferroelectricity or ferroelasticity.  Because of their many interesting properties, multifunctional ferroic materials are considered to be ‘smart’ materials. The IRG has a particular interest in understanding the interplay of such different physical properties in smart materials. As a matter of fact, the interactions - called coupling - between multiple properties are the very basis of modern transducers, devices that convert energy from one form into another.

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Professor Alexandre Tkatchenko and his research team at the University of Luxembourg have been awarded grants totalling €500,000 to conduct research in the emerging field of machine learning methods for chemical discoveries.

The discovery and formulation of new drugs, antivirals, antibiotics and in general chemicals with tailored properties is a long and painstaking process. Interdisciplinary research at the crossroads of biochemistry, physics and computer science can change this. The development of machine learning (ML) methods, combined with first principles of quantum and statistical mechanics and trained on increasingly available molecular big datasets, has the potential to revolutionise the process of chemical discovery.

“Chemical discovery and machine learning are bound to evolve together, but achieving true synergy between them requires solving many outstanding challenges,” explained Alexandre Tkatchenko, Professor of Theoretical Chemical Physics at the University of Luxembourg.

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Medizin-Spezialisierungen an der Universität Luxemburg frühestens ab 2021

Wenn alles klappt, soll im Laufe des Jahres 2021 an der Universität Luxemburg der Startschuss für die medizinischen Spezialisierungsstudiengänge in Onkologie und Neurologie fallen. Bis zu diesem Herbst reicht die Zeit nach Angaben des Hochschul- und Forschungsministeriums nicht mehr, wie es gestern nach einem Austausch der parlamentarischen Kommissionen für Gesundheit sowie Hochschule und Forschung hieß.

Allerdings soll die Gesetzesvorlage mit der Nummer 7531 nach dem Wunsch der Regierung noch vor der Sommerpause durchs Parlament. Damit wird es zukünftigen Medizinstudenten nach sechs Jahren möglich sein, sich für eine der beiden Spezialisierungen (weitere fünf Jahre) zu entscheiden. Warum gerade diese beide Spezialisierungen und nicht andere? Das ist laut Hochschulministerium darauf zurückzuführen, dass sich das „Luxembourg Institute of Health“ (LIH) und die Universität Luxemburg in den vergangenen Jahren in ihrer Forschungsarbeit eben auf jene Bereiche spezialisiert haben.

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Die Internetpräsenz der Universität Luxemburg ist zurzeit das Ziel eines Hackerangriffs. Die Kurse, die angesichts der Corona-Pandemie online stattfinden, sind davon allerdings nicht betroffen.
Wer im Moment die Webpräsenz uni.lu ansteuert, könnte Pech haben: Seit Montagnachmittag, 20. April, ist die offizielle Website zeitweilig nicht erreichbar, weil sie digital unter Beschuss steht – durch einen „DDoS“-Angriff. DDoS steht für Distributed-Denial-of-Service und bezeichnet die absichtlich herbeigeführte Überlastung der Server durch eine künstliche aufgeblähte Anzahl an Zugriffen.

Die Server können diesen Ansturm nicht verarbeiten und verweigern schließlich den Dienst. Die Universität Luxemburg unterrichtet die Öffentlichkeit über ihren Facebook-Account über den Angriff.

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Online payment platform PayPal, Luxembourg's National Research Fund (FNR) and the University of Luxembourg have announced that they are launching a new chair in in Digital Financial Services.

The new post will be filled by Professor Gilbert Fridgen as of January 2020. The position will enable him to carry out scientific research on the digital transformation of the financial services and FinTech at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg. Funding from PayPal and the FNR PEARL programme has an initial duration of five years. 

In Zusammenarbeit mit der Stadt Luxemburg hat die Uni.lu am 28. November ihr neues Projekt „Luxatlas“ vorgestellt: Seit 2016 arbeiten sie an einem digitalen Stadt-Atlas, der in dieser Form weltweit einzigartig ist. Über die Webseite wird die Entwicklung der Geschichte für jedermann interaktiv erkundbar.

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On Thursday 24 October 2019, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) and the University of Luxembourg’s Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) signed, in the presence of Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna, a partnership agreement in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

The agreement is aimed at positioning Luxembourg as a European centre of excellence and innovation in the field of AI applied to state-of-the-art financial data processing techniques.

As the supervisory authority of the financial sector, the CSSF faces mounting challenges. Civil society demands effective regulation of the financial centre, including minimising financial risks, whereas professionals of the finance industry ask for improved responsiveness.  Claude Marx, Managing Director of CSSF, explained: "Faced with these challenges, the CSSF has implemented its CSSF4.0 strategy. This will be a big step towards achieving close to real-time supervision".

As part of this strategy, the CSSF will increase investment in agent training, review work processes and make extensive use of new digital technologies, such as AI, machine learning and other tools commonly applied throughout the FinTech sector. It is as part of this CSSF4.0 strategy that the CSSF and SnT have begun their partnership.

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Ein Forscherteam der Uni Luxemburg hat einen sicherheitsrelevanten Fehler beim Scannen von Reisepässen aufgedeckt.

Forscher der Universität Luxemburg haben einen Fehler im Sicherheitsstandard entdeckt, der seit 2004 weltweit bei sogenannten elektronischen Pässen verwendet wird. Demnach können solche Pässe aus der Distanz ausgelesen und dessen Inhaber identifiziert werden.

Der Standard ICAO 9303 ermöglicht eigentlich das Scannen dieser Pässe an dafür vorgesehenen e-Pass-Readern, zum Beispiel an Flughäfen. Der Standard wird dabei von der Internationalen Zivilluftfahrtorganisation (International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO) vorgegeben und ist weltweit gültig. Er soll verhindern, dass gewisse Informationen, die auf dem Pass enthalten sind, miteinander verknüpft werden können.

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