The campus, which will start being operational in 2026, will be located in two different sites and operating in two different areas, one focusing on corporate activities and the other one on public space research.
During the press conference held on 3 August, economy minister, Franz Fayot, and education and research minister, Claude Meisch, unveiled the concept of the upcoming “Space campus”.
Launched and dedicated to cater exclusively to the Luxembourg space sector, the campus aims to ensure the competitive position of companies and public research institutions in the field.
“In the long term, the campus aims to become the centre of gravity of the Luxembourg space ecosystem. It will be the tangible expression of the country’s investment in general, and of the Ministry of the Economy in this field and will reinforce the visibility and attractiveness of the Grand Duchy on the national, European and international scene, among economic players and the scientific community,” said Franz Fayot.
Two Sites, Two Areas
The infrastructure project aims to regroup national and international space ecosystem actors who are already present or who wish to settle in Luxembourg. The main site of the “Space campus” will be located in Kockelscheuer in the ParcLuxite for high-tech activities and will house the headquarters of the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) as well as activities directly related to space companies.
The “Space campus” will include a second site in Belval with a starting area of 69 acres. The Belval site will eventually house the space research activities and laboratories of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg and the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) of the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST).
“The Belval site for the public research component is perfectly complementary with the Kockelscheuer site for the business component to form a public-private value chain. This chain extends from the creation of skills, with the Space Master of the University of Luxembourg, to long-term innovations such as the exploitation of space resources targeted by ESRIC, while integrating companies in the space sector which constitute the final link in this highly innovative and competitive chain,” adds Claude Meisch.
The creation of the “Space campus” is part of the dynamic of the achievements made by the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research since the launch of the SpaceResources.lu initiative in 2016. In the past six years, the space sector in Luxembourg has developed strongly and now counts around 75 actors (companies and research institutions) active in the space sector and employing a total of almost 1,200 people.
For a more complete overview of the local space ecosystem, check out Silicon Luxembourg’s dedicated space magazine.
