Our FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions?
The Bridgebuilder process is compulsory for all researchers who intend to access Luxembourg’s public-school system for the purposes of data collection. This includes studies requiring physical access to the schools (for example classroom observation studies) or online studies.
Researchers are only allowed to start collecting data after being granted authorization from the Ministry. The Bridgebuilder process applies to all researchers, regardless of their educational level (BA, MA, PhD, university faculty, etc.) and the type of participants targeted (students, parents, teachers or other school staff).
Researchers who would like to work with anonymized EpStan data can also use the Bridgebuilder process to submit an application. See also Question 14 below.
The application form is currently only available in English. However, researchers are free to fill in the form in English, German, French or Luxembourgish. It is advised but not required to keep to one language for all fields of the application form, as this makes it easier to process the application.
An ERP letter of approval is required for all research projects where the host institution of the applicant requires an ethics review.
Researchers affiliated with the University of Luxembourg need to ask for Ethic Review Panel approval first and need to include the approval letter in the application request.
Students affiliated with the University of Luxembourg do not need to ask for Ethic Review Panel. Please check special conditions for Bachelor and Master students here:
https://www.uni.lu/en/about/organisation/administration/ethics-review-panel/
In general, in the multi-lingual, multi-national context of Luxembourg, it is always a good idea to offer a choice of languages whenever possible. Furthermore, researchers are advised to carefully consider the specific population they are interested in and to choose the appropriate languages accordingly.
Some general points below:
- At primary level (enseignement fondamental) pupils are generally proficient in Luxembourgish and German (German is introduced in Cycle 2).
- At the secondary level (enseignement secondaire), the main language of instruction if French, however, a small number of programs are offered in other languages (English, German).
- Pupils in public international/European schools follow alternative curricula based on different languages of instruction.
- Studies targeting teachers in the standard public national system can be conducted in German, French or Luxembourgish as teachers are proficient in these three languages.
- For studies targeting parents, researchers are advised to offer multiple languages and to carefully consider what languages will be most appropriate depending on the specific schools. This applies also to all materials aimed at communication with parents, such as consent forms, information sheets, etc.
- Researchers having questions on the appropriate language choice for their research study can contact the Bridgebuilder team at MENJE (bridge-builder-script@men.lu).
Generally, the first point of contact should be the Data Protection Officer (DPO) of your host research institution. Additionally, you can read the full text of the GDPR below.
The Ministry’s service responsible for processing your request will decide on your application. The decision will be communicated to you in the form of an official letter, which will be sent as a scanned attachment by e-mail.
Please, be advised that you cannot start the study before receiving the authorization letter from the Ministry.
If your research project is approved and your data collection or data matching request is authorized, you can start your study.
Depending on the type of project and the targeted participants, you may need to obtain some additional permissions, such as from the Primary education directorate (direction de l'enseignement fondamental), the municipality (commune) or the school direction. This information will be communicated to you in the decision letter.
Please, be advised that you cannot start the study before receiving the authorization letter from the Ministry.
We will be interested in your findings even if you did not manage to obtain statistical significance or publish the papers. We would also be interested in your positive or negative experiences with the data collection: did you manage to recruit participants? Were there some lessons that you learned in the process that could be useful for other researchers?
You can email us a short summary of your findings at our contact address:
Depending on the type of project and the targeted participants, you may need to obtain some additional permissions, such as from the Primary education directorate (direction de l'enseignement fondamental), the municipality (commune) or the school direction. This information will be communicated to you in the decision letter.
The Bridgebuilder team at SCRIPT is available to answer questions and provide guidance concerning the practical execution of the study, as well as to help with matters related to information on the school curriculum, languages of instruction and others. Feel free to contact us at bridge-builder-script@men.lu at any point of the application process.
Please, be advised that the Ministry of Education cannot provide you the contact information of pupils, parents, teachers, or other school staff and will generally not forward links to online questionnaires except in very specific and rare situations.
If you want to ask for a data matching with the data of the Luxembourg School Monitoring Programme "Épreuves Standardisées" (ÉpStan), please explain the added value of the data matching for your research questions or your project. Before submitting the application form, please contact the ÉpStan team via email (data@epstan.lu) to discuss your application for data matching and its feasibility.
