Research Collaboration and engagement

Endowed chairs

Endowed chairs — professorships funded by a private or public external partner — act as a strategic accelerator for academic and research excellence and socio-economic impact. They are an important feature of the University of Luxembourg in its continued development as a leading international research university.

Endowed chairs create a sustainable and trusted relationship between an external partner and the University that benefits students, researchers, society and donors alike. The basis of the partnership is the joint identification of a field of activity, which advances the goals of both partners and in which they would like to strengthen research and innovation.

Benefits for partners

  • Partners derive benefits from chairs through knowledge creation and research results generated by leading scientists at the University.
  • Attraction of skilled and highly qualified talent.
  • Local and global visibility.

Benefits for the University

  • Opportunity to leverage funding for strategic research and education areas.
  • Enhanced visibility and contacts with societal partners.
  • Improved student skillset for employability in an increasingly competitive labour market.

Since 2006 the University has established 22 industrial, public and public-private chairs, with 16 ongoing. They cover priority fields for the University and society such as sustainable and digital finance; steel construction; digital procurement; space technology, satellite communication and media law; parliamentary studies; and energy process engineering.

Current public chairs

  • Research Chair in Parliamentary Studies

    Held by Prof. Philippe Poirier

  • Chair in Urban Regeneration of the City of Esch

    Held by Prof. Markus Miessen

  • ADA Chair in Financial Law (Inclusive Finance)

    Held by Prof. Dirk Andreas Zetzsche

  • Chair in Sustainable Finance

    Held by Prof. Michael Halling

  • Chair in Cyber Policy

    Pending recruitment

Current industrial chairs

  • ATOZ Chair for European and International Taxation

    Held by Prof. Werner Haslehner

  • ArcelorMittal Chair of Steel Construction

    Held by Prof. Christoph Odenbreit

  • Chair in Capital Markets and Post-Trade

    Pending recruitment

  • Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation

    Held by Prof. Mickaël Géraudel

  • SES Chair in Satellite Communications and Media Law

    Held by Prof. Mahulena Hofmann

  • Paul Wurth Chair of Energy Process Engineering

    Held by Prof. Bradley Ladewig

  • Arendt and Elvinger Hoss Prussen Chair in Investment Funds Law

    Held by Prof. Isabelle Riassetto

Current public-private chairs

  • Chair in Digital Procurement

    Held by Prof. Nils Löhndorf

  • PayPal-FNR PEARL Chair in Digital Financial Services

    Held by Prof. Gilbert Fridgen

Other chairs

Although not considered as endowed Chairs, the University has received a number of other types of Chairs.

  • UNESCO Chair in Human Rights

    Prof. Dr. Robert Harmsen

    The chair focuses on education, human rights research and raising awareness of human rights issues.

  • ERA Chair in Mathematical Statistics and Data Science – SanDAL

    Held by Prof. Yannick Baraud

    European Research Area (ERA) Chairs increase research capacity by attracting high-level researchers to a growing university or research centre and support outstanding scientists and their teams, helping them to become game changers in their field.

Past chairs

The University has also previously received three Jean Monnet Chairs:

  • Prof. Eleftheria Neframi was attributed a Jean Monnet Chair on “The objectives of the European unification process” in 2013.
  • A Jean Monnet Chair on European Public Law was attributed to Prof. Herwig Hofmann in 2012.
  • An ad personam Jean Monnet Chair was attributed to Prof. René Leboutte in 2009, which aimed to support teaching and research in contemporary European history by making use of new information technologies.

Endowed chairs policy

To guide its engagement in this area, the University has adopted a policy on endowed chairs. This sets out guiding principles for the establishment of a chair, which include:

  • Alignment of the chair’s objective and purpose with the University’s missions and strategic goals.
  • Safeguarding of the University’s academic freedom and autonomy at all times.
  • Funding for a chair covers a five-year period, which may be renewed. This covers the professorship and may also cover required additional staff and project equipment.
  • University ownership of intellectual property resulting from the chair’s activities; the partner may request to be informed first about the results of activities related to the chair.
  • Joint operation of governance and communications related to the chair.