FNR Awards 2018; Credit: (c) O Minaire

On Friday 19 October 2018, the 10th annual FDR Awards to acknowledge excellence in the fields of research, innovation and scientific mediation were held in Esch-Belval.
For the tenth year in a row, the research and innovation community met at an event organised by the National Research Fund (FNR) which presented six awards of excellence worth €5,000 each, in the "Outstanding Scientific Publication", "Outstanding PhD Thesis", "Outstanding Promotion of Science to the Public" and "Outstanding Research-Driven Innovation" categories.

For the first time, all prizes were awarded to Luxembourg teams and researchers, which demonstrates the quality of research and scientific mediation produced and carried out in Luxembourg in various fields.

The awards were presented by Marc Hansen, Luxembourg's Minister Delegate for Higher Education and Research, Véronique Hoffeld, President of the FNR Board of Directors, and Marc Schiltz, Secretary General of the FNR.

In his address, Minister Marc Hansen emphasised the importance of the FNR Awards Ceremony, as it recognises the best science and scientific mediation projects, and also demonstrates the government's continued investment in public research which bears fruit for the benefit of the country.

- Outstanding PhD Thesis: Eric Finn Schaanning (Imperial College London)
- Outstanding Scientific Publication: Ben Thuy (Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle – MNHN)
- Outstanding Research-Driven Innovation: Tom Wirtz (David Dowsett, Rachid Barrahma, Olivier Bouton, Jean-Nicolas Audinot) (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology); and Pascale Engel de Abreu (Université du Luxembourg)
- Outstanding Promotion of Science to the Public: Thierry Lutgen & Jutta Meyer (Elisabeth-Anne asbl); and to Nicolas Didier & Guillaume Trap (Luxembourg Science Center)