A word from Raymond Schadeck Board Chair, Luxinnovation “Research is converting money into knowledge and ideas. Innovation is converting knowledge and ideas into money.” 2016 has been a year of significant development and successes for Luxinnovation. Broadly speaking, our overriding mission is to contribute to the economic development of Luxembourg by fostering innovation, fuelling international growth and attracting foreign direct investment. Year over year, we have lived up to our name, fostering innovation by providing entrepreneurs with individual support, in particular with our Fit 4 Start start-up programme with its international reputation which is really taking off, or by helping to accelerate established businesses, via our flagship SME programme, Fit 4 Innovation. Luxinnovation also has provided (and will continue to provide) advisory and support services to both companies and researchers seeking national or European funding for their R&D and innovation projects time and time again. The main driver in all of the above actions – which remains a central part of our activity – is to encourage individuals and companies to renew and revitalise; to take a good idea and make it better, to challenge the now to better serve the future. We have highlighted some of the best of these from 2016 in this report. In 2016, the roles and responsibilities of Luxinnovation were expanded to include those of sector promotion and international prospection. The decision to give us more responsibility in this field, together with Luxembourg’s efforts to promote the country abroad, under the new signature “Luxembourg. Let’s make it happen” reflect a precision of the Government’s strategy to successfully impart a strong brand image, via a unified effort, of Luxembourg as a “smart location” for high-performance companies and industries and to ensure the consistency and relevance of economic promotion actions. One of Luxinnovation’s clearly defined goals is to show the world that Luxembourg’s burgeoning innovation ecosystem is a fertile environment that can help take an entrepreneur or company’s leading and often disruptive ideas and technologies and nourish, grow and then market them internationally. As we roll out our new identity in 2017, we will place a priority on attracting foreign direct investment in a targeted and service-oriented manner and strengthening the international network for economic development. In our new role, we are increasingly focused on the successful outcome of sector-driven economic promotion. With this in mind, Luxinnovation has been empowered to support the Ministry of the Economy’s economic reform by strengthening our workforce to assume the broader tasks to which we have been entrusted. Therefore, adding to the already existing expertise and comprehensive knowledge of the different economic sectors in Luxembourg, in part garnered via our cluster initiative, by the end of 2016 Luxinnovation added new sector developers for ICT & digitalisation and Cleantech, as well as a marketing intelligence team. There really is no good idea or service that cannot be improved. This is the essence of innovation. In an age approaching exponential rates of invention, one must innovate constantly to succeed. This concept is one with which we not only rigorously challenge others who come to us looking for further successes, it is the driving force for our own efforts. As I write this, Luxinnovation looks well positioned to fulfil this mission in 2017 and beyond.