The news emerged after the University of Luxembourg and finance ministry signed a joint letter of intent on Thursday, pledging to promote research and training and develop a framework for collaboration on sustainable finance.

The initiative follows a recommendation in the Luxembourg sustainable finance roadmap.

Concretely, it means the parties would organise training courses and conferences to develop knowledge and raise awareness about climate change and sustainable finance among students and professionals, the university said in a press release published on 11 October.

Degree programme

It could also lead to the creation of a degree programme to train specialists in the field of sustainable finance. In a later stage, the co-signatories will seek financial sector partners to join the initiative to explore other avenues.

“The proposed measures will not only help to encourage innovation and help train the talents of tomorrow, but also further consolidate the role of the financial centre in the field of sustainable finance,” Luxembourg finance minister Pierre Gramegna (DP), who signed the letter, said.

The letter of intent was jointly signed by the chair of the board of governors of the University of Luxembourg, Yves Elsen, and university rector Stéphane Pallage.

Doctoral training unit

The news comes a week after the University of Luxembourg launched a doctoral training unit on data-driven computational modelling and applications, dubbed Driven.

The programme is backed by a €3.4m budget through the Luxembourg national research fund for a period of six years. During this time it will train early-stage researchers in tackling complex data-intensive problems in all sectors of the economy.

According to the university, computation and data sciences are the third pillar of scientific investigation, after theory and experimentation.

“We have entered an era in which soaring amounts of data offer enormous opportunities, but only to those who are able to harness them. We are standing at a turning point where the economic success of a nation is determined by its ability to exploit the vast amounts of information daily generated”, Prof. Andreas Zilian, coordinator of the DTU DRIVEN at the University of Luxembourg, said in a press release published on 4 October.