Useful Information

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Helpful Information

AT THE UNIVERSITY

The Experimental Soft Matter Physics Group is located at Campus Limpertsberg (162a avenue de la Faïencerie, L-1511 Luxembourg. This campus has most of the Physics department, both experimental and theoretical.
There are two other University campuses:

Campus Kirchberg, located in the Kirchberg district of Luxembourg City, is home to the SnT group, some engineering groups, and the law and economics faculties.
Campus Belval, located just outside Esch-sur-Alzette, is the main University campus, home of the administration, the Incubator, SEVE, and other organizations. It also houses LIST and LCSB, two of our partner institutions.

Research at Limpertsberg
Limpertsberg is home to many physics groups. The Bâtiment des Sciences is home to the experimental groups, while the Bâtiment de Recherche B houses theoreticians and some administrative staff. The experimental groups at Campus Limpertsberg are:

Group	Location	Topics
LCNano Group of Giusy Scalia	Floors -1 and 2	Liquid crystals with nanoparticle inclusions and composites
Nanomagnetism Group of Andreas Michels	Floor 2	Magnetic behavior of novel materials; X-ray and High energy physics
Surface and Interface Physics Group of Alex Redinger	Floor -1, 0, and 3	Surface characterization and probing microscopy; photo- voltaics
Ultrafast Condensed Matter Group of Daniele Brida	Floor 1	Laser physics
Physics of Living Matter Group of Anupam Sengupta	Floors 0, 3, and 4	Biological and soft matter physics

UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION

The ESMP group secretary is Adamantia Galani, with Oxana Mikhaylova to take over administrative duties as of February. In case either of them away, Jana Krier Kabatsova and Ida Ienna can take care of duties.
Ida Ienna is the DPHYMS responsible for ordering.
Most administration is located at the Belval Campus, including IT. Some administration is present on campus by appointment.

OFFICIAL TRAVEL

As soon as you plan to travel for work or official university-related business, you must submit a Demande d'autorisation de voyage et de séjour (DAVS) with a plan for travel and cost estimates, along with information about the budget code. (These estimates do not need to be precise, but they should be at least somewhat reasonable.) This form needs to be signed by the budget holder (Jan) and submitted to Adamantia for confirmation.
You can either book through the University travel agent (TravelPro) (strongly not recommended) or book and pay the travel yourself in advance.
If you travel by train, with the approval of the budget holder (Jan), first-class train travel is allowed (at the lowest available rate). With flights, only Economy class within Europe or (at most) Premium Economy for intercontinental travel is reimbursable.
After you travel, you have 45 days to claim back the money spent with a déclaration des frais et d'indemnités (DFI). On this, you only declare the amounts you have spent out of your own resources and should include any and all receipts and proofs of travel (airplane boarding cards, train tickets, passport stamps if you travel outside the Schengen area, receipts for fees for travel visas...). Any amounts spent by credit or debit card or by bank transfer require a bank statement showing the debit of the money from your account/charge to your card to be attached to the DFI.
With regards to food and local public transportation, you have two options:
- Claim for actual expenses incurred (requires the proofs mentioned earlier)
- Claim a per diem allowance, a flat rate per overnight of stay. The standard amount is €25/night, though options exist for coverage of €50/night if motivated. The total cost per day of stay cannot exceed the daily maximum for the destination (~€170/night, but varies by destination).
If the currency involved is not euros, you should use either the amount charged to your bank card or, if you paid cash, the rate you paid to acquire the cash.
Once completed, you can send the form to Adamantia for pre-checking. If she agrees that everything is fine, then sign it, have Jan sign it, and send the final form, with all the proofs, to Adamantia to request the reimbursement. (Allow two to three weeks for payment.)

OTHER ADMINISTRATION

For many non-university administrative tasks in Luxembourg, a good first place to start is the Guichet public service website. Information is available in English, French, and German, and it's a good first place to start with respect to government documents, procedures, taxes, or any other non-university administrative tasks.
The Doctena website allows you to book medical appointments relatively easily. You generally need a referral/prescription from a general practitioner/family doctor in order to have going to a specialist or purchasing medicines covered by the CNS insurance.

LUXEMBOURG VISA/RESIDENCE PERMIT REQUIREMENTS

While the complete requirements are a bit more complex, this is a short overview of the requirements for entry and stay in Luxembourg (for new group members and in case you invite guests, scientific or otherwise).

For EU/EEA/Swiss citizens: A valid passport or ID card is sufficient. To stay for more than 90 days in Luxembourg, however, you must register with the local authorities within eight working days of entering the country and complete a special registration form to exercise EU citizen rights.
For non EU/EEA/Swiss citizens not subject to visa requirements, staying up to 90 days: You must present a valid passport, issued within the past 10 years and valid for at least 6 more months, to enter the Schengen Area*, but you are allowed to stay in the Schengen Area countries without a visa for 90 days within a rolling period of 180 days counting from the date of your first entry to the Schengen Area. (NB: From some point in early 2027, an electronic travel authorization (ETIAS) will be required from visa-exempt foreign nationals to travel to the Schengen Area and Cyprus.) You must be able to provide proof of appropriate funds for the intended length of stay as well as adequate insurance coverage if this is requested at border control. Until the EU Entry–Exit System (EES) enters into full effect (planned for 10 April 2026), be sure to get your passport stamped at the border, both on arrival and departure.
Be aware that all non-EU citizens must register with their municipality of temporary residence within three working days of entering Luxembourg, even if you're not required to have a visa. (If you're staying at a hotel, hostel, or other paid accommodation, this will usually be taken care of by the hotel/hostel.)
For non-EU/EEA/Swiss citizens subject to visa requirements, staying up to 90 days: A temporary stay visa (type C visa) must be applied for before entering Luxembourg from the Schengen Area embassy for the main country of stay. However, if you are ordinarily subject to visa requirements, you can enter by presenting your valid Schengen Area country residence permit along with your passport.
Be aware that all non-EU citizens must register with their municipality of temporary residence within three working days of entering Luxembourg, even if you're not required to have a visa. (If you're staying at a hotel, hostel, or other paid accommodation, this will usually be taken care of by the hotel/hostel.)
For non-EU/EEA/Swiss citizens staying more than 90 days: Unless you have an EU permanent residence permit** in another EU country (except Denmark or Ireland) or are an accompanying family member of an EU citizen (or equivalent), an autorisation de séjour temporaire (temporary stay authorization, or AST) from the Ministry of Home Affairs is required, and it must be granted prior to entering Luxembourg. The University of Luxembourg HR will facilitate the process, but allow at least two to three months to process the entry documents. The two categories which are most relevant are étudiant (student, Ph.D. or otherwise) and chercheur (researcher).
Once the AST has been issued, if you do not need a visa, you must enter Luxembourg and declare your arrival to the municipality before the expiration of your AST and within three working days of entry. If you require a visa, you must obtain a type D entry visa before the AST expires, then enter Luxembourg within the visa validity and declare your arrival to the municipality within three days of entry.
Within three months of the declaration of arrival, you must apply for a residence permit (titre de séjour) from the General Directorate of Immigration, which requires:
- The completed application form (this may be provided to you by the municipality)
- A complete copy of your passport (every page!)
- Proof of payment of the €80 residence fee by bank transfer
- A copy of your déclaration d'arrivée, issued by the municipality upon registration
You also need to have done both the general medical check-up from a general practitioner (~€60-70) and the tuberculosis screening (~€25, cash) at the Ligue Médico-Social before applying for the residence permit.

You can apply either online (requires a LuxTrust authentication; ask your bank!) or by mail for the residence permit. Allow 3-4 weeks for processing; once approved, you will then receive a letter inviting you to make an appointment for fingerprinting. The final card can be picked up one week after the fingerprinting appointment.

Exception for mobility: A person already holding either a student or researcher residence permit from another EU country (save Ireland and Denmark) is allowed to stay in Luxembourg as a part of their research project or studies for up to 180 days without an additional visa requirement, provided the stay is declared to the Immigration authorities of both the sending country and Luxembourg before departure (at least 30 days in advance) and there is no objection from the Luxembourg authorities.
*Schengen Area: Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Norway, and Liechtenstein. Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican City are all de facto members of the Schengen Area, but their residence permits are not Schengen residence permits. Cyprus is an EU country which generally honors Schengen Area residence permits and visas as substitutes for Cypriot visas, but Ireland does not. The United Kingdom is not a part of the EU and has their own travel requirements; these are detailed in the below tab.
**It must be an EU permanent residence permit, normally saying Long-term resident EU or some equivalent: some countries issue non-EU permanent residence permits, and these do not count.

VISA REQUIREMENTS FOR TRAVEL WITHIN EUROPE

Luxembourg's a small country: even the "IKEA Luxembourg" is not in Luxembourg, but just across the border in Belgium! That said, travel within the Schengen Area is relatively straightforward, but some things are to be taken into account:

You must always have valid documents to cross an internal (Schengen) border. If you're an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen, your national ID card (if it doesn't have a "not valid to cross the border" endorsement) or valid passport is sufficient; if you're not, you must have a valid passport. If you have a residence card (titre de séjour or carte de séjour), you must carry this as well. There can be spot/random checks at the internal Schengen borders, especially when travelling by plane.
If you're not an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen not subject to a visa requirement: For the first 90 days of your stay, counting from the date of your entry stamp, you may travel freely within the Schengen Area (you'll be seen as a "tourist" in the other Schengen countries, even if you have a residence permit for Luxembourg). After those ninety days, however, you must have a valid residence permit in hand to travel to other Schengen countries.
If you're not an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen, require a visa, and have a C visa: You can travel within the validity of the C visa to any other Schegen country if your visa reads Valable pour États Schengen (or something similar). A minus sign in front of country abbreviations means your visa is not valid in those countries, while a list of countries means that your visa is only valid in those countries.
If you're not an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen, require a visa, and have a D visa: You can travel within the validity of the D visa to any other Schengen country, provided you do not stay more than 90 days in a 6-month period in any of the other Schengen countries. (A D visa acts like a C visa in all other Schengen countries.) Once the D-visa expires, however, you must have a valid residence card to travel within the Schengen area.
If you're not an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen and have a Luxembourgish residence permit: A valid Luxembourgish residence permit acts as a substitute Schengen visa for a combined stay up to 90 days in a 180-day period in other Schengen countries. Mobility rules for holders of student (étudiant) or researcher (chercheur) residence permit can allow for a continuous stay of 180 days in other Schengen countries (except Denmark and the EFTA countries) without a separate long-stay visa, but subject to a prior notification procedure.

Special Cases
Cyprus While an EU (and eurozone) country, Cyprus is not yet in the Schengen Area. However, Schengen visas and residence permits are valid for travel to Cyprus unless you are a Turkish or Azerbaijani passport holder.

Ireland While an EU (and eurozone) country, Ireland is not in the Schengen Area and separate entry documents may be required for travel to and/or through Ireland if you are not an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen. There is an Irish Embassy in Luxembourg if you need to apply for a visa.

EFTA Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and Liechtenstein are not EU countries, though they are in the Schengen area: this means that certain EU rules regarding long-stay visas and/or research mobility do not apply and there are customs controls for travel to and from those countries.

The United Kingdom As the UK is not an EU country, a separate visa policy is in force for travel to/from the UK, and EU documents are generally not valid. Unless you are an Irish citizen, you must have a valid passport and either an Electronic Travel Authorisation or a full visa to travel to the UK.

HOW TO GET AROUND

For travel within/around Luxembourg, the Mobilitéit website provides up-to-date timetables and journey planning for journeys with bus, train, and tram. All public transportation in Luxembourg is completely free (in second class), so make use of it!
The Luxembourgish train operator CFL offers day-return tickets from Luxembourg to many neighboring cities for reasonable prices; these can be purchased at the ticket machines at any CFL station. Buses to neighboring countries fall under a separate tariff scheme (RegioZone), but you can purchase these tickets from the bus driver or at a train station.
Long-distance trains link Luxembourg to many other European countries quire readily: from Luxembourg, you can reach Paris in just under 2.5 hours, Strasbourg in 1.5 hours, Brussels in about 3 hours, Liège in 3 hours, Frankfurt in 4, and London in 6. You can book tickets through the Belgian train company NMBS/SNCB, SNCF, or Deutsche Bahn. It may also be worth considering Interrail Passes for longer-duration or more expensive trips: the university will reimburse a proportional part of the Interrail pass cost representing the travel for official purposes.
Luxembourg–Findel Airport, located just east of the city, is well connected to many European hubs (Paris CDG, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam Schiphol...), with some out-of-Schengen flights available. Ryanair flies to/from Luxembourg, as do many of the other classic European carriers.
Low-cost airports within reasonable distance are Brussels Charleroi and Frankfurt-Hahn.

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