Credit: FNR Luxembourg
On Tuesday 28 March 2023, the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of Luxembourg’s Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and National Research Fund (FNR) launched a first call for projects under the new joint programme “LuxAid BRIDGES”.
Given the novelty of the programme, the call is structured in two phases: a “pre-call” open until 10 May 2023 followed by a “full call”, which will open in autumn 2023.
According to the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs and the FNR, the call is in line with the objectives of the Luxembourg Cooperation's "Road to 2030" strategy and the national strategy for research and innovation. Through the funding of research projects in partnership with researchers in developing countries or organisations active in the international cooperation ecosystem, “LuxAid BRIDGES” aims to further support the development of research capacities and to pool scientific results in support of the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the field of development cooperation and humanitarian action.
This first call demonstrates the shared objective of the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs and the FNR to support research and development projects in thematic areas related to development cooperation and humanitarian action, through annual calls for projects with a total of €2 million of funding per year.
"This call for proposals will mobilise research actors to work together in favour of development cooperation and international humanitarian action", said Luxembourg’s Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Franz Fayot. "By funding projects that will strengthen local research capacity, we want to contribute to the advancement of research in fields as diverse as natural resource management including sustainable agriculture, water and energy, poverty eradication, inclusive finance, global health, digitalisation and international law.”
"This initiative is perfectly in line with the national research and innovation strategy, which aims to optimise the impact of research carried out in Luxembourg by examining the extent to which research results can be used and transferred as part of Luxembourg's development cooperation efforts. By setting up this specific funding instrument, a more systematic cooperation between the research ecosystem and Luxembourg's development cooperation and humanitarian action policy is encouraged," added Claude Meisch, Luxembourg’s Minister for Higher Education and Research.
Implemented jointly with the Luxembourg Agency for Development Cooperation (LuxDev), "LuxAid BRIDGES" is organised in two phases. The first consists in a preliminary call called "SEEDLING". The projects selected during this "pre-call" will benefit from a grant of up to €20,000 to carry out a three-month feasibility study. The second phase consists in the launch of the main call for proposals under "LuxAid BRIDGES", which will take place at the end of 2023.
Organisations established in Luxembourg eligible for support are public institutions, public bodies engaged in research activities, non-profit organisations and societal impact companies. In addition, project partnerships submitted must link a research institution in Luxembourg to international and multilateral organisations, civil society, academic and research centres or the private sector located in a developing country or with a demonstrated relevance to development and/or humanitarian aid.
