Health technologies

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In 2008, Luxembourg chose health technologies as one of the pillars of its economic diversification, concentrating its strategic economic priorities on medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and more specifically on digital health in order to contribute to the implementation of preventative and personalised medicine at a national level.

The "Health Technologies" unit at the Ministry of the Economy's General Directorate for Industry, New Technologies and Research (Direction générale Industrie, nouvelles technologies et recherche), aims to create the conditions needed within Luxembourg to achieve the government's ambition to position Luxembourg as a European HealthTech hub in terms of the development, assessment and adoption of digital health technologies on the European market.

Although still young, the Luxembourg HealthTech sector is flourishing and comprises almost 140 companies, of which around 30% develop digital health tools.

Strategy

The innovation strategy for the development of the HealthTech sector in Luxembourg is rooted in the data-driven national innovation strategy, as it draws on the value of health data via:

(1) infrastructures of excellence, such as Meluxina, LNDS and Clarence; and

(2) health data usage cases created by establishing cohorts of patients that provide interoperable and high-quality data for personalised medicine applications, as is the case for NCER-PD projects (pilot cohort targeting Parkinson's disease, with data from deep genotyping and phenotyping) and Clinnova (wider cohorts targeting chronic inflammatory diseases). These projects are supported by consortia that include Luxembourg's public research institutions (LIH, UniLU), Luxembourg hospitals and international partners.

Financial aid

To support specifically HealthTech-sector companies that are established in the Grand Duchy, the Ministry of the Economy, in collaboration with its partners Luxinnovation and/or FNR, has implemented several funding and aid programmes, including:

  • The HealthTech acceleration programme Fit4Start which supports promising start-ups within the sector each year, providing coaching, financial aid, office spaces and networking opportunities with a view to facilitating their development in Luxembourg.
  • The Fit 4 Innovation – HealthTech Market programme helps companies to define their regulatory roadmap to obtain the CE marking on their innovative digital medical devices thus accelerating their entry into the European market.
  • The calls for projects"Joint Call HealthTech", are aimed at encouraging the implementation of a collaborative research culture between public research, healthcare organisations and Luxembourg HealthTech companies.

The Ministry of the Economy also supports the creation of hosting facilities dedicated to companies in the HealthTech sector: 

  • The House of BioHealth, offers a unique turnkey hosting solution in Luxembourg for HealthTech companies, by making adaptable laboratory spaces available to them. This enables them to become quickly operational with their R&D activity; 
  • The House of BioHealth also hosts a bioincubateur - almost 350 m2 of fully-equipped laboratory space ready to welcome spin-offs and start-ups in the HealthTech sector; 
  • The Health and Life science innovation Campus (HE:AL) project constitutes a major infrastructure project and reflects the government's ambition to develop the sector. It will be located between the House of BioHealth, the future SüdSpidol and close to Belval's City of Science.

The ministry has also contributed to the creation of the Luxembourg HealthTech Cluster. Established by Luxinnovation, the cluster brings together the national players that are active in the HealthTech sector. Its objective is to encourage the development of new and existing companies through innovation, and to capitalise on the country's advanced digital skills and know-how, in order to stimulate the sector's development.