The University of Luxembourg has signed an agreement with the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) which will see the two collaborate through research and the exchange of scientists.

The partnership agreement was signed between the Professor Rainer Klump, President of the University of Luxembourg, and Chancellor Nicholas B. Dirks of the University of California, Berkely.

UC Berkeley was one of Uni.lu's top priority choices of a strategic partner in the promotion of joint research and exchanges with top universities. Founded by a group of academic pioneers in 1868, UC Berkeley became the site of the Free Speech Movement in 1964 and is now a world-leading university, having produced no less than 36 Nobel Prize winners.

UC Berkeley and the University of Luxembourg have previously collaborated in research areas such as biology, computer science, history and law, and this cooperation will now be expanded into areas such as information and communication technology (ICT), finance, social inequality and European studies. The two academic institutions have also recently opened a new campus on a brownfield site and will be exchanging experience thereof.

In conjunction with this initiative, the University of Luxembourg will be sending a delegation of researchers, headed by Professor Klump, to visit UC Berkely in 2016. The Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) has announced its intention to support the agreement and to provide special funding in order to facilitate the collaboration.