The Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR), Luxembourg’s national research fund, is the country’s main public funder of research. Established in 1999, the FNR distributes public funding for research and innovation across Luxembourg’s public research institutions — the University of Luxembourg, the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), and the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) — and administers more than 25 distinct funding instruments spanning PhD and postdoctoral support, thematic project funding, international collaboration, and talent-attraction schemes. For international researchers, two instruments in particular — PEARL and ATTRACT — are specifically designed to bring established and early-career researchers from abroad to build research groups in Luxembourg. This guide covers FNR’s role and structure, the mechanics of both programmes, the rest of FNR’s funding portfolio, and practical guidance for researchers and research offices evaluating Luxembourg as a funding or collaboration destination.
FNR’s role and structure
The FNR operates as Luxembourg’s equivalent of a national science foundation — the funding body that channels government research investment into the country’s public research institutions and, through several of its instruments, into industry-academia and cross-border collaboration. Its funding decisions are organised around three strategic objectives: reaching scientific leadership in areas of national priority, making public research a competitive advantage for Luxembourg’s economy, and anchoring science and research in Luxembourg society. Luxembourg’s public research landscape is comparatively young — the University of Luxembourg was only founded in 2003 — and FNR’s instrument mix reflects a deliberate strategy of using targeted, well-funded talent-attraction schemes to build research capacity quickly rather than relying solely on organic growth, which is the specific context that produced PEARL and ATTRACT.
FNR funding is organised into person-funding instruments (individual researchers and their salaries/research budgets) and project-funding instruments (specific research projects, which may involve teams and partner institutions). PEARL, ATTRACT, the AFR PhD/postdoc grants, and Industrial Fellowships fall into the person-funding category; CORE, INTER Mobility, BRIDGES, OPEN, and several others are project-funding instruments. A research office or individual researcher evaluating Luxembourg funding should start by identifying which category fits their situation — recruiting or being recruited as an individual researcher, versus seeking project funding for an existing or planned collaboration.
PEARL: attracting and retaining established researchers
PEARL is FNR’s flagship instrument for bringing internationally recognised, established researchers to Luxembourg to set up or lead a research group in an area of strategic relevance to the country. A PEARL grant funds a five-year programme of up to roughly €3–4 million, covering the researcher’s own position along with the staff, equipment, and operating budget needed to establish a competitive research group at a Luxembourg host institution.
Historically, PEARL was framed as a pure attraction scheme — aimed at researchers based outside Luxembourg at the time of application. Starting with the PEARL 2027 call, FNR broadened eligibility so that applicants already active within a Luxembourgish research institution can also apply, alongside those still based abroad — explicitly repositioning PEARL from an attraction-only instrument to one that both attracts new researchers and retains high-quality established researchers already working in the country. This is a meaningful distinction for research offices advising a researcher who moved to Luxembourg through another route (e.g. a standard faculty appointment) and later wants to compete for PEARL-scale group funding; check the current call documentation on FNR’s PEARL page rather than assuming the older attraction-only framing still applies, since PEARL calls are periodic rather than continuously open.
Applications to PEARL are made jointly with a Luxembourg host institution, which must confirm it can accommodate the proposed research group and align the proposal with its own institutional strategy — PEARL is not a portable personal grant a researcher can carry to any institution of their choosing, and host-institution buy-in is a prerequisite, not a formality.
ATTRACT: early- to mid-career investigators
ATTRACT targets a different career stage: researchers roughly two to eight years past their PhD who have an outstanding early-career track record and a research agenda that fits strategically with a Luxembourg host institution’s priorities. Rather than a single funding tier, ATTRACT runs two tracks:
- Starting Investigator track — FNR contribution of up to €1.5 million.
- Consolidating Investigator track — FNR contribution of up to €2 million.
Both tracks fund a five-year grant intended to let the researcher build an independent research team at a Luxembourg host institution, similar in spirit to PEARL but scaled to an earlier career stage and correspondingly smaller budget. As with PEARL, the application is made in conjunction with a named host institution, and the call is competitive and capacity-limited — recent ATTRACT calls have funded on the order of one to two projects per round, so applicants should treat this as a highly selective instrument rather than a routine fellowship, and should check the live call page on fnr.lu for the current call’s specific budget ceilings, eligibility window, and expected number of awards before applying, since these figures are set per call and can change between rounds.
How PEARL and ATTRACT compare
| Dimension | PEARL | ATTRACT |
|---|---|---|
| Target career stage | Established, internationally recognised researchers | Early- to mid-career (roughly 2–8 years post-PhD) |
| Funding ceiling | Up to approx. €3–4 million | Up to €1.5M (Starting) or €2M (Consolidating) |
| Duration | 5 years | 5 years |
| Applicant pool (as of the 2027 call) | Researchers abroad and, newly, researchers already active in Luxembourg | Primarily researchers relocating to a Luxembourg host institution |
| Host institution required | Yes — joint application | Yes — joint application |
Other FNR funding instruments
PEARL and ATTRACT sit alongside a broader portfolio of more than 25 instruments. The ones most relevant to researchers and research administrators working with or in Luxembourg include:
- AFR (Aides à la Formation-Recherche) — FNR’s PhD and postdoctoral grant scheme. The AFR Individual track funds Luxembourg nationals pursuing a PhD in Luxembourg or abroad, and funds researchers of any nationality provided the project is carried out in Luxembourg — making it the main entry point for a non-Luxembourgish doctoral candidate seeking to study at a Luxembourg institution.
- CORE — FNR’s core, multi-annual thematic programme, funding research projects aligned with Luxembourg’s national research priority areas. This is FNR’s largest project-funding scheme by volume.
- INTER — FNR’s principal instrument for international collaboration, funding joint projects between Luxembourg public research institutions and partner research groups abroad, including bilateral agreements with a number of national funding agencies and an INTER Mobility track supporting exchanges between Luxembourg-based and international research groups.
- Industrial Fellowships — co-funds PhD or postdoctoral researchers working jointly with a Luxembourg-based company, aimed at applied, industry-linked research.
- BRIDGES — funds applied-research projects with a defined path toward societal or economic impact.
- OPEN — supports fundamental research projects outside FNR’s designated priority themes, providing a route for strong proposals that don’t fit CORE’s thematic scope.
- RESCOM — funds the organisation of scientific conferences, workshops, and related dissemination and outreach activities.
FNR also funds instruments aimed specifically at public engagement and knowledge transfer (e.g. PSP-Flagship, PSP-Classic for science communication) and knowledge/technology transfer support, which sit closer to CASRAI’s tech-transfer cluster than to funding acquisition itself.
Practical guidance for international researchers and research offices
- Identify the right instrument by career stage and funding need first. A researcher already leading an established, well-funded group abroad is a PEARL candidate; an early-career investigator two to eight years past the PhD with a strong independent track record is an ATTRACT candidate; a prospective doctoral student is an AFR candidate; an existing collaboration looking for joint project funding is an INTER or CORE candidate.
- Secure a host institution early. Both PEARL and ATTRACT require a joint application with a Luxembourg public research institution (University of Luxembourg, LIST, LIH, or LISER), and the host institution’s own strategic fit and capacity to accommodate the proposed group are evaluated alongside the researcher’s own record. Contact the relevant institution’s research support office well before a call deadline, not after drafting the scientific case.
- Treat PEARL and ATTRACT as highly competitive and capacity-limited, not routine calls. Both fund a small number of grants per round relative to application volume; build in realistic timelines for a multi-stage, competitive review process.
- Check the live call page before relying on any published figure. Funding ceilings, eligibility windows (such as the PEARL 2027 change opening eligibility to researchers already based in Luxembourg), and the number of expected awards are set per call on fnr.lu and can change between rounds — treat this guide as an orientation to the instrument structure, not a substitute for the current call text.
- For cross-border collaboration rather than relocation, INTER (including INTER Mobility) and the CORE programme’s international components are typically the more relevant instruments than PEARL or ATTRACT, since they fund joint projects rather than requiring a researcher to relocate and lead a new group.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between PEARL and ATTRACT?
PEARL targets established, internationally recognised researchers and funds up to roughly €3–4 million over five years to set up a research group; ATTRACT targets researchers two to eight years past their PhD and funds up to €1.5 million (Starting Investigator) or €2 million (Consolidating Investigator) over five years. Both require a joint application with a Luxembourg host institution.
Can researchers already based in Luxembourg apply to PEARL?
Starting with the PEARL 2027 call, yes — FNR broadened PEARL eligibility to include researchers already active at a Luxembourg research institution, alongside those still based abroad, repositioning PEARL as both an attraction and a retention instrument. Earlier PEARL calls were attraction-only; always confirm the eligibility terms of the specific open call.
How many ATTRACT grants does FNR fund each year?
ATTRACT is highly selective; recent calls have funded on the order of one to two projects per round. Applicants should check the current call page on fnr.lu for the exact number expected to be funded in a given year, since this varies by call.
Is FNR funding open to non-Luxembourgish nationals?
Yes. Most FNR instruments, including PEARL, ATTRACT, INTER, and the AFR PhD grant for researchers based in Luxembourg, are open to researchers of any nationality; the eligibility condition is generally about where the research takes place and which institution hosts it, not the applicant’s citizenship, though specific instruments (such as certain AFR Individual tracks for Luxembourg nationals abroad) carry nationality-linked conditions worth checking case by case.
Related CASRAI guides
This guide is part of CASRAI’s international funder overview series. See also:
- FWO (Research Foundation – Flanders) — Belgium’s Flemish research funder
- F.R.S.-FNRS — the separate French Community of Belgium research fund (not to be confused with Luxembourg’s FNR, despite the similar acronym)
- ANR — France’s national research funding agency
- GAČR — the Czech Science Foundation
For general orientation to research funding administration, see the CASRAI grants-management pillar.
