“Fusion power holds the promise of limitless, reliable, American-made energy—and programs like INFUSE and FIRE ensure our innovators have the tools, talent, and partnerships to make it a reality,” said Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
FIRE: The $128 million FIRE collaboratives funding was awarded to seven teams that are focused on creating a fusion energy science and technology innovation ecosystem by forming virtual, centrally managed teams. These teams selected have a collective goal of bridging the FES program’s basic science research programs and growing fusion industries.
The DOE said it expects to invest up to $220 million in total funding for the FIRE collaboratives over four years, with $31 million in fiscal year 2025 dollars. Outyear funding remains contingent on congressional appropriations.
INFUSE: An additional $6.1 million in funding was awarded to the INFUSE program. With this funding, the DOE has selected 20 projects that accelerate private-sector fusion energy development by reducing barriers to collaboration between businesses and national laboratories or universities.
The projects selected include research in materials science, laser technology development, high-temperature superconducting magnet assessment, artificial intelligence learning for fusion modeling and simulation, and enabling technologies to move toward achieving economical fusion energy.
The DOE solicited INFUSE proposals from the fusion industry and selected projects for one-year awards. According to the DOE, the selected projects, which will receive between $100,000 and $500,000 each, were selected through a competitive peer review process managed by the INFUSE leadership team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Caveat: The DOE said its selection for award negotiations is not a commitment by the department to issue an award or provide funding. Before funding is issued, applicants will undergo a negotiation process with the DOE, and the DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.
A full list of projects and additional information can be found on the FES program homepage.
The Department of Energy announced on Wednesday that it has awarded $134 million in funding for two programs designed to secure U.S. leadership in emerging fusion technologies and innovation. The funding was awarded through the DOE’s Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program in the Office of Science and will support the next round of Fusion Innovation Research Engine (FIRE) collaboratives and the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) awards.
