The Official Journal of the European Union published in 8 February 2011, the Committee selection results for the award of three grants by the European Investment Bank within the framework of the EIB-University Research Sponsorship Programme. In this occasion the three selected candidates are Universities from Luxembourg, Germany and Portugal.

The EIB-University Research Sponsorship Programme (EIBURS) is part of the EIB-Universities Research Action, through which the European Investment Bank (EIB) aims to foster its institutional relations with universities. EIBURS provides grants to university research centres working on research topics and themes of major interest to the Bank.

The EIB-Universities Committee decided to award this year EIBURS grants in each of the three selected lines of research to the following candidates:

• Benchmarking European SME Credit Performance to the University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg).
• The History of European Infrastructure Finance to the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany).
• The Economic Impact of Law: An Economic Assessment of the Impact of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive to the Technical University of Lisbon (Portugal). 

These grants, which count with funding up to 100,000 euro per year for a period of three years, have been awarded after a a competitive process initiated in June 2010 with the a call for proposals for EIBURS sponsorships, to interested university departments or research centres associated with universities in the EU, Accession or Acceding Countries, with recognised expertise in areas of direct interest to the Bank.

The EIB received 22 formal proposals for the award of three sponsorships for the period 2010-2013. The topic where more proposals were presented was the benchmarking European SME Credit Performance, with 12 proposals; followed by the History of European Infrastructure Finance, with 6 formal proposals; and finally, the Economic Impact of Law: An Economic Assessment of the Impact of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, for which 6 candidatures were presented.

Over the coming months, the next round of EIBURS is expected to be launched , and themes will be proposed and announced with the launch. Along with the EIBURS Programme, the EIB-Universities Research Action funds other programmes and mechanisms, which include STAREBEI (STAges de REcherche BEI) and EIB University Networks.