A Luxembourg business delegation recently visited Madrid and Barcelona to build new relationships in digital health, artificial intelligence and the space sector.
Abigail Okorodus
From 4 to 7 May 2025, Luxembourg Ministers Lex Delles (Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism), Martine Deprez (Minister of Health and Social Security), and Stéphanie Obertin (Minister for Digitalisation, Research and Higher Education) led an 85-member business delegation in an official trade mission to Spain.
On the first day in Madrid, the ministers engaged in high-level exchanges with their Spanish counterparts. Discussions focused on strategic areas and approaches to cybersecurity, artificial intelligence applied to the public sector, cooperation between AI Factories, quantum advances, as well as the implementation of the Data Governance Act and the reuse of public data.
Other exchanges also explored the digital transformation of the healthcare systems and the strategies in place with respect to the impending implementation of the European Health Data Space regulation.
In parallel, Minister Delles visited the Airbus Defence and Space site to strengthen space sector cooperation, while Minister Obertin explored the collaborative research approach at the IdiPAZ Institute. A Luxembourg 16-member space delegation also toured Airbus, GMV and Thales Alenia Space to identify new partnership opportunities in Earth observation, telecommunications and satellite infrastructure.
The Barcelona leg featured a Luxembourg-Spain Economic Forum, drawing nearly 130 business executives from Spain and Luxembourg. The forum aimed to bolster economic ties and included workshops on AI, high-performance computing (HPC), digital health technologies, and space, showcasing synergies between Luxembourg and Catalonia. Luxembourg representatives had the honour of highlighting:
Key visits included the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) to discuss AI Factories and quantum computing; the NTT Data Living Lab to explore AI and data space collaborations; and the pioneering Sant Joan de Déu pediatric hospital for insights into digital health innovation. The ministers also visited the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) and its spin-off LuxQuanta to delve into quantum technologies. A parallel space delegation visited the ESA Business Incubation Centre in Barcelona.
Minister Delles highlighted the mission's success, which involved 85 representatives from 36 Luxembourg companies and 18 public organisations: “This economic mission to Spain has allowed us to strengthen the links between our two innovation ecosystems and to identify several concrete pistes for collaboration, notably in artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and space technologies. Together, we can build a digital and innovative future for our two nations.”
