In the context of the Lisbon strategy and the Barcelona targets, the Luxembourg government intends to increase the level of public spending n R&D from about 50M€ in 2005 to 220 M€ by 2009 and to concentrate the budget increase on a limited number of promising re-search areas on the basis of clearly stated strategic and operational objectives. The purpose of the first national foresight in Luxembourg, conducted in 2006-2007, was to inform policy-makers and provide direction for the definition of these national research priorities.