MP Franz Fayot of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) has tabled a legislative proposal aimed at tackling what he describes as structural job insecurity among postdoctoral researchers in Luxembourg's public research sector.
The proposal, officially deposited in the Chamber of Deputies on 9 July 2026 as parliamentary dossier 8787, would amend the laws governing the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), public research centres, and the University of Luxembourg. The centrepiece of the reform is the creation of a new type of employment agreement: the "contrat de mission scientifique à durée indéterminée", or open-ended scientific mission contract.
Under the proposal, fixed-term contracts for postdoctoral researchers and research scientists at the University of Luxembourg would be limited to three years, with a single renewal of up to one additional year.
After that period, the university would have to choose between three options: offer the researcher an open-ended scientific mission contract, admit them to a recruitment procedure for an assistant professorship under the tenure-track system, or provide professional transition support, including at least six months of continued remuneration and access to training and career guidance.
Similar, though not identical, provisions would apply to postdoctoral researchers at Luxembourg's public research centres. Unlike at the University, where researchers could also be admitted to an assistant-professor recruitment procedure under the tenure-track system, postdocs at public research centres would, after a maximum of four years following completion of their doctorate, have to be offered either an open-ended scientific mission contract or professional transition support.
Despite its open-ended nature, the proposed scientific mission contract would remain linked to a clearly defined research programme or project.
The scientific mission would have to specify its objectives, expected results or deliverables, available resources, and objective criteria determining when the mission had been completed. A projected duration could also be indicated, although this would not constitute a contractual end date.
Researchers employed under such contracts would receive the rights associated with a conventional permanent employment contract, including protection against dismissal, seniority rights, leave, and social security coverage.
Ending the contract because a project had been completed or abandoned would constitute a dismissal under Luxembourg labour law and would have to meet strict conditions. The proposal also foresees the creation of an independent monitoring commission, including an external scientific expert, a representative of academic staff, an employee representative, and a labour-law specialist.
The proposal would also go beyond existing protections against unfair dismissal by guaranteeing researchers on the new scientific mission contracts at least 12 months' gross salary in compensation if their contract were terminated in breach of the proposed safeguards.
The reform would also create a formal bridge between postdoctoral research and a permanent academic career. Researchers who had spent at least three years on an open-ended scientific mission contract could request an independent assessment for recruitment as an assistant professor under the tenure-track system.
A favourable assessment would give the researcher priority for recruitment within one year, provided that a funded position was available.
The issue of precarious employment in Luxembourg's research sector is far from new. For more than a decade, researchers, trade unions, and other actors in the country's research community have raised concerns about the heavy reliance on fixed-term contracts and the limited pathways towards stable academic careers.
As early as 2015, researchers writing in Luxembourg's independent magazine forum warned that the country's five-year limit on successive fixed-term research contracts could have the opposite of its intended effect, pushing young researchers into unemployment, forcing them to abandon academic careers, or encouraging them to leave Luxembourg altogether. The authors argued that this represented a potential loss of scientific talent and public investment for the country.
The same year, the Education and Science Syndicate (SEW) of the Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL) publicly criticised what it described as abuses of the special fixed-term contract regime available to universities and public research centres.
The union argued that researchers could be employed for up to five years, followed in some cases by a waiting period before being rehired on another temporary contract. It maintained that permanent contracts should remain the norm and warned that prolonged insecurity made it difficult for researchers to plan major life decisions such as starting a family or buying a home.
Those concerns persisted. In 2021, representatives of the OGBL, including staff delegates from Luxembourg's three public research centres and the University of Luxembourg, met with the FNR to discuss the employment conditions and career prospects of postdoctoral researchers.
According to the union, the FNR acknowledged concerns about the precarious status of postdocs and expressed willingness to cooperate on measures to improve their career development.
The debate gained wider public visibility again in 2022, when RTL reported on what critics described as a "postdoc trap". The discussion focused on projections that the share of fixed-term contracts at the University of Luxembourg would rise from 55.2% to 60%, with unions warning that researchers in their thirties could struggle to obtain the long-term security needed to plan their personal and financial lives.
The issue has also repeatedly reached Parliament. In September 2024, Fayot and fellow LSAP MP Mars Di Bartolomeo submitted parliamentary question No. 1149, raising concerns over the repeated use of fixed-term contracts and the career prospects available to researchers.
More recently, concerns over researcher precarity also surfaced during the legislative process surrounding the reform of the FNR. Among the formal opinions submitted on the bill, the Chamber of Employees argued on 1 December 2025 that fixed-term contracts had become standard practice for young researchers even after completion of a doctorate or postdoctoral training. It called for five-year fixed-term contracts to be restricted to training posts or genuinely time-limited projects and said open-ended contracts should otherwise be favoured for postdocs.
The reform was subsequently debated and adopted by the Chamber of Deputies on 18 June 2026. Although the bill itself focused on the legal framework governing the FNR rather than specifically on postdoctoral employment contracts, concerns over researcher precarity had formed part of the parliamentary dossier surrounding the reform.
Against this backdrop, Fayot's newly deposited proposal represents the latest attempt to turn a long-running debate over researcher precarity into concrete legislative change.
The proposal's deposit on 9 July does not mean MPs have already held a full debate on its contents.
The next step is likely to be referral to a parliamentary committee, where MPs can examine and amend the proposal. A public plenary debate may follow later, but this is not automatic.
The first real indication of the proposal's political prospects will therefore come when committee scrutiny begins and the positions of the government and parliamentary parties become clearer.
For the moment, the proposal has opened a new legislative front in a debate that has been developing for several years: whether Luxembourg's ambition to build an internationally competitive research sector can be reconciled with a system in which many of the researchers carrying out that work remain dependent on successive temporary contracts.
Read the full legislative proposal here (in French).
