The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has declared around $4.6 million in funding for 18 projects that took place at national laboratories and US universities.
Image Credit: Dilok Klaisataporn/Shutterstock.com
The awards are offered via the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy, or INFUSE, program, which was fixed in 2019. The program has been sponsored by the Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program office within DOE’s Office of Science and is centered on expediting fusion energy development via public-private research collaboration.
The latest round of INFUSE selections demonstrates the growing interest from private industry in partnering with national laboratories and U.S. universities.
Jean Paul Allain, Associate Director of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences, The U.S. Department of Energy
Allain added, “INFUSE is attracting interest from both fusion developers and from companies seeking to serve as their suppliers or partners. We are seeing this program evolve and continue to encourage contributions to a vibrant fusion ecosystem in the U.S.”
“Six of these awards are to companies in the rising ‘fusion-adjacent industry.’ These companies won’t design fusion power plants on their own, but they will serve as domestic suppliers. By partnering with companies like those in the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, these suppliers enable technologies that advance fusion in the U.S.,” continued Allain.
Projects include facilitating technologies, modeling, and simulation, materials science, as well as plasma diagnostics. The funded projects will offer companies access to the chief expertise and abilities available at DOE national laboratories and US universities to fulfill vital scientific and technological difficulties in following fusion energy systems.
The program sought proposals from the fusion industry and chosen projects for one- or two-year awards between $100,000 and $750,000 each, with a 20% (or greater) cost share from industry collaborators.
The 18 projects for the 2023 INFUSE Request for Applications were chosen through a competitive peer review process controlled by the INFUSE leadership team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Complete funding is $4.6 million for projects lasting up to two years in duration, with all the funding from Fiscal Year 2023 dollars. The full list of planned awards canshutt be discovered under “Latest Topical Funding Opportunity Awards.”