Luxembourg attracts researchers
Luxembourg is a small EU country with big potential in research and science. Establishments like Luxinnovation and the University of Luxembourg, both of which promote research and innovation, make the country interesting for researchers from abroad. However, there are many technical obstacles to attracting the desired number of researchers, such as a housing shortage and complicated immigration procedures. A recent EU-funded project, 'Enlarging the ERA-MORE network: the Mobility Centre Luxembourg' (Moc Luxembourg) wants to overcome these obstacles for researchers. ERA-MORE is a network of mobility centres that provides assistance to researchers and their families on all issues relating to their work in another country. Moc Luxembourg is establishing a new mobility centre in the country to help incoming researchers organise their research stay there. It is structuring comprehensive information on all aspects of a research stay and making it available through an Internet portal linked to the European Researchers' Mobility Portal. This includes a help desk and communication tools as well. The Ministry of Culture, Higher Education and Research in the country entrusted the University of Luxembourg with this task with the support of main public research institutions. In 2008, the Euraxess Services Centre Luxembourg was set up on the premises of the University of Luxembourg. The site generated a high amount of page visits, particularly to the 'job opportunities' section. Much of the interest came from Belgium, Germany and the UK. This national portal helps raise the awareness of the existence of the new centre and provides all relevant information to incoming researchers. All network partners post their job opportunities on the European Euraxess portal, which ultimately plays a significant role in attracting researchers to Luxembourg. The Moc Luxembourg project has clearly identified the main issues that are important to incoming researchers and has trained people involved in addressing these issues. One of these has been the issuance of visas and residence permits to foreign researchers, an obstacle that was discussed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Another issue was the lack of housing, which is being addressed by real estate chamber and the University of Luxembourg. The latter manages apartments and rooms for students and researchers, offering new avenues to address the challenge. Overall, this project is facilitating researcher mobility to Luxembourg and helping to attract valuable knowledge to the heart of Europe from the rest of the world. It goes without saying that Europe's research agenda and knowledge-based economy would benefit from such an initiative significantly.
