The year 2025 marked an important milestone for LIST with the appointment of Dr Jurgen Joossens as Deputy-CEO. Upon his arrival, he injected new momentum into our valorization strategy, laying the groundwork for a more integrated, ambitious, and resolutely impact-oriented approach. One of his first key initiatives was the establishment, for the first time at LIST, of a centralized Technology Transfer Office, designed to coordinate all technology transfer and intellectual property management activities. This new organization is inspired by the quadruple helix innovation model, which brings together public authorities, industry, research centres, and citizens within a single value-creation ecosystem.
The strategy led by Jurgen Joossens aims to foster a more developed culture of scientific entrepreneurship within LIST, while enhancing the maturity, diversity, and relevance of our project portfolio. It seeks to further direct research efforts toward high-impact initiatives capable of generating tangible value, while improving the commercialization of our intellectual property assets. In this context, an Entrepreneurial Academy will be launched in 2026 to support researchers in progressively increasing the technological maturity of their work.
To best meet the needs of an increasingly demanding innovation landscape, LIST also offers new partnership models designed to adapt to the ambitions of each organization. Whether it involves providing a targeted response to a specific challenge, supporting the commercialization of a technological asset, or jointly building a long-term RDI programme, these models have been designed to maximize impact and enhance the effectiveness of collaborations.
This renewed strategy is built on key strengths: recognized scientific expertise, technologies at advanced stages of maturity, and infrastructure unique to the region. By combining these strengths, LIST is reinforcing its ability to transform ambitious ideas into concrete results and operational value. Under the leadership of Jurgen Joossens, we are thus strengthening our role in the national innovation ecosystem and our contribution to advancing solutions that serve businesses, institutions, and society.
Founded in 2024, Strayprotect, LIST’s 12th spin-off, is developing a coating approaching absolute black for the space sector and the high-performance optics industry. This young company perfectly embodies LIST’s ability to transform cutting-edge research into high-value-added solutions. Like other startups originating from the institute, it has benefited from the support of the Ventures Office, which assists entrepreneurial projects from market assessment and customer discovery through to building a founding team and securing funding.
Strayprotect is just one example of the momentum that has been strengthened in 2025 with the arrival of a new head of the Ventures Office, Alexander Godlewski. Under his leadership, a renewed strategy has been implemented to strengthen the entrepreneurial commercialization of technologies developed at LIST. This strategy is based on a more structured venture-building model, earlier involvement of entrepreneurs and investors, and closer collaboration with industry. Together, these elements aim to accelerate the transformation of scientific results into spin-offs and solutions that can be effectively deployed in the market. This direction confirms LIST’s role as a strategic interface between research, entrepreneurship, and innovation financing.
This vision was put into practice at the Luxembourg Ventures Days 2025, where LIST presented twelve high-potential technologies. The event connected our researchers with investors and industry leaders, creating an environment conducive to accelerating the market launch of these innovations. It illustrates the institute’s commitment to fostering more direct and effective interactions between science and entrepreneurship.
This momentum was also reflected in the growth of Invitrolize, a biotechnology startup spun out of LIST’s laboratories, which secured funding led by Expon Capital’s Digital Tech Fund. This investment supports the global rollout of ALIsens®, the first in vitro model capable of identifying respiratory sensitizers under realistic exposure conditions. This success demonstrates the tangible impact of LIST’s enhanced approach to commercialization and spin-off creation.
