(L-R): Christianne Wickler, vice president of UP Foundatin; Liz Kremer-Rauchs, director of the UP Foundation; Claude Meisch, Minister of National Education, Childhood and Youth; Raymond Schadeck, President of the UP Foundation; Credit: MENEJ

The UP Foundation was officially launched on Thursday 31 May 2018 in Luxembourg; UP is a private foundation whose mission is to promote education within civil society.

The UP Foundation was founded with a single endowment from the Ministry of National Education, Childhood and Youth. "Education is at the service of society. It prepares young people to take responsibility in society, it conveys values, a culture, a model of living together. It concerns us all," said Minister Claude Meisch.

The UP Foundation was created to give civil society actors the opportunity to express themselves, to collaborate, to launch new ideas to feed the debate around education. The foundation is an independent and apolitical structure, which has the potential to become not only a partner in education policy, but also a critical voice.
 
Liz Kremer-Rauchs, director of the foundation, detailed the actions that will be put in place:
• networking between existing initiatives;
• a discussion forum to lead positive debates around the challenges of education;
• a laboratory to launch new ideas;
• a prize for rewarding effective initiatives.

The initiating group of UP represents as much as possible the different sectors of civil society: innovation, entrepreneurship, culture and art, social, foreigners, border workers, formal and non-formal education …

The foundation is chaired by Raymond Schadeck, and vice-chaired by Christianne Wickler.
 
The head office is located in Esch-sur-Alzette. La Métropole du fer, with its Kannerkascht project dedicated to the feeding of children, is also the first partner of the foundation.
 
During the launch party, Minister Meisch symbolically handed over the foundation to the citizens of Luxembourg.