The aid is aimed at businesses established in Luxembourg and covers the following activities:

• experimental development, i.e. acquiring, combining, structuring and using scientific, technological and commercial knowledge and skills with a view to developing new or improved products, processes or services;
• industrial research, i.e. planned research or critical investigations to gain new knowledge and skills in order to:
  • develop new products, processes or services; or
  • significantly improve existing products, processes or services.

General terms and conditions

Businesses must satisfy the general terms and conditions that apply to all types of aid for research, development and innovation.

Eligible costs

Only costs that are directly linked to R&D projects shall be admissible, namely:

• payroll expenses: researchers, technicians and other support staff, if they are employed for the project;
• expenses for instruments and equipment, if and for as long as they are being used for the project. If such instruments and equipment are not used for their full lifecycle as part of the project, only the depreciation costs corresponding to the duration of the project, calculated in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles, shall be deemed 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 expenses for consultancy and equivalent services used exclusively for the project;
• additional overheads and other operating expenses – in particular, the cost of materials, office supplies and similar products – incurred directly as a result of the project.

You must submit your application for aid for R&D projects as part of a call for projects before beginning any work.

Multi-year schedule and organisation of calls for projects

Different types of national calls for projects are envisaged:

• calls for projects issued by the Ministry of the Economy;
• calls for projects issued by the Ministry of the Economy and the Luxembourg National Research Fund (Fonds national de la recherche – FNR), in collaboration with Luxinnovation, which aim to promote R&D projects based on actual collaboration with at least one national public research institute.

In principle, a call for expression of interest may precede calls for projects.

A multi-year schedule of national calls for projects will be published here.

Ongoing calls for projects

Currently, calls for projects are ongoing in the following sectors:

• high performance computing (HPC) and/or artificial intelligence (AI):
  • eligibility criteria and additional information are available on the online platform research-industry-collaboration.lu;
  • the deadline for submitting projects is 17 September 2025 at 14.00.
• Defence:
  • eligibility criteria and additional information are available on the online platform research-industry-collaboration.lu;
  • the deadline for submitting projects is 12 December 2025 at 11.00.

Filing an application

You (or your representative) must submit the application for aid for R&D projects as part of a call for projects online via MyGuichet.lu.

This is a procedure that requires authentication using a LuxTrust product or an electronic identity card (eID).

Supporting documents

Applications for aid must include the following information and documents:

• the name and description of the business;
• the size of the business in accordance with Annex I of Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014;
• the business's organisational chart;
• the annual financial statements for the last 2 financial years of the applicant business and, where applicable, of the single economic entity it belongs to;
• a description of the project, including its start and end dates;
• a description of the project's economic potential;
• the location of the project;
• the list of the project's eligible costs;
• the form and the amount of aid required for the project;
• any relevant information that will allow the appropriate ministers to assess the qualities or specific features of the project or the incentive effect of the aid.

Businesses established less than 3 years ago must provide a business plan that includes a 3-year cash flow forecast.

SMEs must provide a 3-year cash flow forecast.

Maximum amount of financial aid

For each R&D project, the gross amount of the aid may not be less than:

• EUR 1,000 for small and medium-sized enterprises; and
• EUR 100,000 for large businesses.

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

* Under certain conditions, mark-ups may apply – specifically, if the project is based on actual collaboration:

• between 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 (European Economic Area) member country, and no single business is bearing more than 70% of the eligible costs on its own; or
• between one business and one or more research institutes and knowledge dissemination organisations. These organisations must:
  • bear at least 10% of the eligible costs; and
  • have the right to publish the results of their research.

Payment of the aid

The capital grant is paid after completion of the project.

However, one or more aid instalments may be requested after a portion of the costs for which the aid was granted is incurred.

Based on their cash flow requirements, SMEs may request a payment of 30% before the project commences.

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