Financial aid for research and development projects (R&D)

Large businesses

SMEs

Financial aid in the form of a subsidy is available for companies and private sector research organisations that carry out research and development (R&D) projects and innovation initiatives. The aid can cover a percentage of the eligible costs, depending on the size of the company and the type of project or programme.

Applications for aid must be submitted using the online assistant available on MyGuichet.lu. Luxinnovation can provide help to set up your projects.

Who is concerned

Financial aid is available for companies and private research organisations established in Luxembourg in connection with the following activities:

experimental development, i.e. acquiring, combining, shaping and using scientific, technological and commercial knowledge and skills with a view to developing new or improved products, processes or services;
fundamental research, i.e. experimental or theoretical work undertaken to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without any direct practical application or commercial use in view;
industrial research, i.e. the planned research or critical investigation aimed at the acquisition of new knowledge and skills for developing new products, processes or services or for significantly improving existing products, processes or services.

Prerequisites

Terms and conditions

Companies and private research organisations must satisfy the terms and conditions that apply to all types of aid for research, development and innovation.

Eligible costs

All costs directly related to the R&D projects or programmes are eligible:

payroll expenses: researchers, technicians and other support staff employed for the project or programme;
expenses for instruments and equipment, if and for as long as they are being used for the project or programme. If such instruments and equipment are not used for their full life within the framework of the project or programme, only the depreciation costs corresponding to the duration of the project or programme, calculated in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles, shall be deemed admissible.
expenses for buildings, if and for as long as they are being used for the project or programme. As far as buildings are concerned, only the depreciation costs corresponding to the duration of the project or programme, calculated in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles, are deemed admissible. As for land, only the costs of commercial transfer or actually incurred investment costs are eligible;
expenses for contract research or research services, the purchase of knowledge and patents or licences from external sources under conditions of full competition as well as costs of consultancy and equivalent services used exclusively for the project or programme;
additional overheads and other operating expenses (in particular, cost of materials, office supplies and similar products) incurred directly as a result of the project or programme.

How to proceed

Filing an application

The application for financial aid for research and development projects (R&D) is to be submitted using the online assistant available on MyGuichet.lu.

The person submitting the application (the applicants themselves or their representatives) must have a LuxTrust product (e.g. Token, Smartcard or Signing Stick) or an electronic identity card.

The application must be submitted before the commencement of the work.

How to create a business eSpace on MyGuichet.lu

Two scenarios are possible:

The person submitting the application is a new user on MyGuichet.lu and does not yet have an eSpace:
The creation of the eSpace is done in 2 steps:
1. registration of a user;
2. creation of a business eSpace.
A tutorial in video or PDF format is available to guide you.
The person submitting the application is a user of MyGuichet.lu and already has a private eSpace: they will have to create a new business eSpace.
A tutorial in video or PDF format is available to guide you.

Consult the help section on MyGuichet.lu.

Supporting documents

The application for aid must namely include the following information and documents:

the name and size of the company;
a description of the project or programme, of the activity or investment, and of the related works and its innovative nature, including its start and end dates;
a description of the economic valuation methods for the results of the project or programme, for the activity or the investment and the related operations, and its economic potential;
the location of the project or programme, activity or investment and related operations;
a list of the costs for the project or programme, activity or investment and related operations;
the type and amount of aid necessary for the project or programme, activity or investment and related operations;
any relevant piece of information that will allow the competent ministers to assess the qualities or specificities of the project or programme, activity or investment and related operations plus its incentive effect.

 Each business which was 
 established less than 3 years ago 
 is required to provide a 
 business plan.

Maximum amounts of financial aid available

For each R&D project or programme, the gross amount of aid cannot be less than EUR 1,000.

The amount of the aid provided will be calculated on the basis of the eligible costs of the project or initiative, up to the following caps:

	Large companies or large private research organisations	Medium-sized company* or medium-sized private research institute**	Small business* or small private research institute**
Experimental development	25 %	35 %	45 %
Experimental development + supplement*	40 %	50 %	60 %
Industrial research	50 %	60 %	70 %
Industrial research + supplement*	65 %	75 %	80 %**
Fundamental research	100 %	100 %	100 %

* The supplement becomes payable if one of the following conditions is met:

the project is based on effective collaboration:
- between 2 businesses where at least one is an SME, or the project is carried out in at least 2 Member States, or in one Member State and in another EEA member country (European Economic Area), and no single business is supporting more than 70 % of the allowable costs on its own; or
- between one business and one or more research organisations and knowledge dissemination organisations where the latter support at least 10 % of the allowable costs and have the right to publish the results of their own research;
the results of the project or programme are disseminated through conferences, publications, open access repositories or free or freely accessible software.

** The maximum foreseen financial aid for industrial research, all premiums included.

*** Please see the procedure on General conditions for financial aid for research, development and innovation.

Payment of the aid

The capital subsidy and repayable advance are paid out after the completion of the project, programme or activity.

However, one or more advance payments may be made as the investments are made.

The application for payment of the aid is to be submitted using the online assistant available on MyGuichet.lu. This can be done in 2 different ways:

in a detailed manner, where each individual cost is reported: to be used if there are 10 invoices or less to be declared; or
in a summarised manner, where the total per type of cost is reported: to be used if there are more than 10 invoices to be declared.

Details of the documents to be provided depending on the cost statement templates are available under "Pièces à joindre à la démarche en ligne MyGuichet.lu de demande de paiement".

The person submitting the payment application (the applicants themselves or their representatives) must have a LuxTrust product (e.g. Token, Smartcard or Signing Stick) or an electronic identity card (eID).

Forms / Online services

Démarche de demande d'aide en faveur des entreprises

Accéder à la démarche

Pièces à joindre à la démarche en ligne MyGuichet.lu

Télécharger le formulaire ZIP, 2.58 Mb

Démarche de demande de paiement

Accéder à la démarche

Pièces à joindre à la démarche en ligne MyGuichet.lu de demande de paiement

Télécharger le formulaire ZIP, 1.52 Mb

Who to contact

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Ministry of the Economy
General Directorate - Industry, New Technologies and Research (Financing and State Aid)

19-21, boulevard Royal
L-2449 Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Postal address :
L-2914 Luxembourg

Phone : (+352) 247-84162

(+352) 247-84162 FAE@eco.etat.lu General Directorate - Industry, New Technologies and Research (Financing and State Aid) Path to General Directorate - Industry, New Technologies and Research (Financing and State Aid)

Double click to activate the map

Luxinnovation
Luxinnovation

5, avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux
L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette
Luxembourg

Phone : (+352) 43 62 63-1

Fax : (+352) 43 81 20

(+352) 43 62 63-1 info@luxinnovation.lu Luxinnovation Path to Luxinnovation

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