On 26 October 2016, the University of Luxembourg and four research institutions signed a collaboration agreement for the joint training of PhD students.

The agreement was signed in the presence of the delegated minister for Higher Education and Research, Marc Hansen, by the university and the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), and the Max-Planck-Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law (MPI).

The agreement jointly regulates the methods of PhD training between the university and the research centres. As such, PhD students pursue training in any of the signatory institutions and the university will award the degree.

Joint PhD programmes will also be established in research areas defined by the University of Luxembourg and the other institutions who signed. As a result, the partners have determined 13 common research areas, including physics, biomedicine, law, and economics.

Marc Hansen said that, “This agreement is the concrete result of discussions on the subject of the cooperation and coordination of public research.” The delegate minister added that “The formalised coordination between public research actors is necessary for increased efficiency and the optimisation of the potential impact of public research activities in Luxembourg”.

Photo by MESR. From left to right: Claire Egan; Yves Elsen; Marc Schiltz; Fernand Reinig; Marc Hansen; Léon Diederich; Gaston Schmit; Tonie van Dam; Josiane Entringer; Catherine Larue; Luc Schockmel; Burkhard Hess; Aline Muller.