Luxembourg among the top ten countries globally for publications on cross-cutting tech

11 November 2021

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Cross-cutting technologies.

Cross-cutting technologies include artificial intelligence and robotics, energy, materials, nanotechnology, opto-electronics & photonics, biotechnology, strategic, defence & security, bioinformatics, and Internet of Things.

Digital technologies are critical in sustaining economic competitiveness in the future.

According to UNESCO Science Report 2021, Luxembourg is one of the five EU members featured among the top ten countries globally for publications on cross-cutting tech per million inhabitants. With 245 publications in the field of cross-cutting strategic technologies, Luxembourg’s scientific output is among the highest in the world (rate calculated per million inhabitants).

Becoming a leader in data-driven research and innovation

Luxembourg is committed to embracing the opportunities arising from the unprecedented growth of digital technologies and their applications. Within this context, the country aims to become one of the most advanced digital societies in the world, with the highest standards of data security, privacy and ethical data handling. Research Luxembourg is part of this vision.

Research in this area is intended to provide the scientific basis for such development. It entails research in the industrial fields in which Luxembourg wants to consolidate and develop its strengths. Examples include materials science, the space industry, and automation and robotics.
Data modelling and simulation also hold sway in articulating this vision. Indeed, coverage spans the new communication and computing systems and associated cybersecurity challenges needed to support a reliable data-driven economy in an increasingly connected world.

In addition, research seeks to bring new perspectives to Luxembourg’s important economic sectors, like the financial industry, through the development of key technologies in the fintech/regtech area or in the field of distributed ledger technologies.

Finally, increasing digitalisation raises the question of how all these new developments and disruptive technologies can into play in a responsible way in an innovative legal environment in Luxembourg and Europe. As such, issues related to regulations for responsible and privacy-friendly use of data, as well as ethical questions around the use of data and disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence take centre stage in Luxembourg’s research efforts.

Luxembourg, a living lab for Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is a central enabling technology in the four main research priority areas.

In line with the national strategy, Luxembourg has the ambition to develop AI for selected use cases at national level (e.g. in the fields of personalised healthcare or personalised education). Becoming a living laboratory, Luxembourg shows how this technology can become a national tool to support the development of society.

As a small country, Luxembourg can benefit in this context from its size and its ability to develop faster than large countries. Additionally, Luxembourg can contribute to the development of tomorrow’s standards by developing a legal framework for the use of AI based on ethical principles and by testing its implementation.