Businesses and private-law establishments must have an accreditation as a private research institute in order to:

• hire third-country national researchers in order to carry out research projects;
• or benefit from AFR grants by the National Research Fund (Fonds national de la recherche).

Accreditations are issued by the Ministry of the Economy which holds a list of accredited establishments.

Who is concerned

Accreditation is required for any business or institute governed by private law which:

• intends to hire a researcher from a third country;
• intends to hire a researcher from a third country who is already legally established in Luxembourg;
• intends to hire a researcher from a third country who has already concluded a host agreement in another EU Member State and intends to stay more than 3 months in Luxembourg;
• wishes to obtain an 'AFR PhD grant' (Aide à la Formation-Recherche) for research work carried out by researchers who are preparing a PhD.

Prerequisites

A private Luxembourg research institute must:

• be located in Luxembourg;
• carry out or plan to carry out research work, namely:
  • basic research: this covers experimental or theoretical work mainly carried out with the purpose to acquire new knowledge on basic phenomena or observable facts, without any practical application or use being directly envisaged;
  • industrial research: this covers planned research or critical surveys aimed at acquiring new knowledge and capabilities in order to develop new products, procedures, services, methods or planning, or to bring about a significant improvement in existing products, procedures, services, methods or planning. It includes the creation of elements for complex systems necessary for industrial research, notably for the validation of generic technologies, excluding prototypes;
  • experimental development: the objectives are the acquisition, association, formulation and use of scientific, technical and commercial knowledge or other existing knowledge in order to carry out projects, create devices or drawings or models for the design or development of new, modified or improved products, procedures, services, methods or planning.
    The development of prototypes or the running of commercially exploitable pilot projects also depends on experimental development when the prototype or the pilot project are essentially the finished commercial product or the final process and when it is too costly to produce it for demonstration and validation reasons only.

How to proceed

Application for accreditation

The research institute must submit an application for accreditation as a private research institute to the Ministry of the Economy.

Applications must be accompanied by:

• audited annual accounts for the past 3 financial years (except for recently created businesses);
• any additional information deemed necessary for the evaluation of the accreditation application.

Accreditation is generally granted for a period of 3 to 5 years, except for recently created businesses, for which the period of validity is 3 years.

List of accredited private research institutes

• Actimage S.A.
• Agence pour la Normalisation et l'Économie de la Connaissance (ANEC)
• Allen & Overy s.e.c.s.
• AMA MUNDU Technologies S.A.
• Amersil S.A.
• ANG S.à r.l.
• ArcelorMittal Belval et Differdange S.A.
• Artec Europe Sàrl
• Ballinipitt architectes urbanistes S.A.
• Banque et Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat
• Black Swan LUX S.A.
• Blue Horizon Sàrl
• Braingineering Technologies Sàrl
• Brainiact s.à r.l.
• Brasserie Nationale S.A.
• CBN Technologies Sàrl
• Cebi Luxembourg S.A.
• Ceodeux S.A.
• CERATIZIT Luxembourg S.à r.l.
• Choice Technologies Luxembourg sàrl
• Cooperations ASBL
• Cyberhedge Europe Sàrl
• DataThings Sàrl
• Deloitte Tax & Consulting
• Delphi Automotive Systems Luxembourg
• eBus Competence Center Sàrl
• Eethiq Advisors sàrl
• Espeem Sàrl
• Euro-Composites S.A.
• European Centre for Certification and Privacy S.A.
• ExaMotive S.A.
• e-Xstream Engineering sàrl
• Fast-Track Diagnostics sàrl
• Ferrero Trading Lux S.A.
• Flen Health S.A.
• FMR s.àr.l.
• Fondation Alphonse Weicker
• Fonds pour le développement du logement et de l’habitat
• Foyer Assurances S.A.
• Frontier Connect Sàrl
• GCL International Sàrl
• GFM (CE) S.A.
• GomSpace Luxembourg Sàrl
• Goodyear S.A.
• Gradel sàrl
• Healthcast S.A.
• Husky Injection Molding Systems Luxembourg IP Development sàrl
• IEE S.A.
• ILRES S.A.
• InCert G.I.E.
• Information Technology for Translational Medicine (ITTM) S.A.
• International Lacquers S.A.
• ispace Europe S.A.
• itrust consulting
• KPMG
• Kuehne + Nagel s.à r.l.
• Lindab S.A.
• Logos It Services S.A.
• LUCA - Luxembourg Center For Architecture
• LuxAl S.A.
• LuxMobility Sàrl
• Luxplan S.A.
• Luxscan Technologies Sàrl
• Luxspace
• Mahle Behr Luxembourg s.àr.l.
• Max Planck Institute Luxembourg
• Motion-S S.A.
• Natura4Ever S.A.
• Next Gate Capital S.A.
• neXus Luxembourg sàrl
• Nexxtlab S.A.
• Objectim Sàrl
• Olamobile s.à r.l.
• Oriskany s.àr.l.
• pEp Security S.A.
• PM-International AG
• ProNewTech S.A.
• PwC Société Coopérative
• RSS-Hydro Sàrl-s
• RTC4Water S.à r.l.
• SES Engineering (Luxembourg) s.à r.l.
• SES Techcom S.A.
• Sisto Armaturen S.A.
• Société de la Bourse de Luxembourg
• Space4environment s.à r.l.
• SPARC Industries s.à r.l.
• STATEC Research asbl
• Telindus
• Textilcord Steinfort S.A.
• Trendiction S.A.
• Witry & Witry S.A.

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