Luxembourg’s strategy for data-driven innovation is aimed at making the country the most trusted data economy in Europe. The strategy has three focus areas:
- Continuing the investments in the country’s top-notch digital infrastructure
- Supporting businesses in the adoption of innovative digital technologies
- Creating a favourable legal and financial environment
The strategy targets in particular six sectors: Industry 4.0, ecotechnologies, health technologies, logistics, space and financial services. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are at the very centre. The country offers a number of advantages to companies interested in using it as a base for developing and launching digital products and services for the European market.
Multi-sector digital economy support
Luxembourg is home to a dense network of organisations willing and open to helping companies fine-tune their products and services in fields ranging from fulfilling cybersecurity requirements to optimising artificial intelligence algorithms. They include several public research organisations, such as the ICT-oriented Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) and the bioinformatics specialist Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), which both are part of the University of Luxembourg, the IT for Innovative Services department of the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH).
Other key partners include the Luxembourg Digital Innovation Hub that supports companies’ digital transformation, cybersecurity online source SECURITYMADEIN.LU, LuxProvide that manages Luxembourg’s business-oriented high performance computer, the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) and the GovTech Lab, which aims at stimulating the digital transformation of the public sector. Together, they help companies find the right partners to work with and the right projects to develop their business.
Dynamic start-up ecosystem
Luxembourg’s start-up ecosystem has really taken off over the past ten years and is now made up of a wide range of players. Young local and international companies can count on institutional start-up support organisations, incubators and accelerators run by companies or public-private partnerships, networking initiatives, high-profile start-up events and dedicated start-up programmes, including the well-known coaching and funding programme Fit 4 Start.
Legal framework for the digital economy
Whereas in many jurisdictions innovation tends to be slowed down by legislation that is not adapted to the data economy, the Luxembourg government is able to understand technology and put in place laws that drive innovation. One example is the law on data reversibility, which guarantees access to data in case of bankruptcy of cloud service providers. Luxembourg is fast to implement EU legislation, so companies that fulfil the requirements here can be confident that their offering is compliant in other European countries.
Luxembourg is now exploring the idea to create a national data exchange and interoperability platform, which would ensure that data from various producers would be usable, interoperable, accessible, reliable and GDPR compliant for data consumers.
Know-how in digital transformation and ICT expertise
Luxembourg is successful in attracting ICT talent: according to EUROSTAT, the country has the third highest density of ICT experts in the EU. It ranks 2nd in the world for its ability to attract and retain talent (World Talent Ranking) and has the highest share of high-skilled workers in the world (Statista, 2015). The international mindset, stable economy and high quality of life also contribute to the continuous growth of Luxembourg’s multilingual and multicultural workforce.
State-of-the-art infrastructure
The digital sector in Luxembourg can count on the country’s outstanding digital infrastructure. It notably includes smart, redundant electricity grids, the highest density of Tier IV certified datacentres in the world and the best connectivity in Europe.