IFE is attracting interest in research communities and industry, clearly demonstrated by emerging flagship programs at large-scale user facilities in Europe and a growing number of startup companies aiming at laser-fusion. This action aims at different levels of coordination, in between actors on the same level and across levels, involving (i) large-scale research infrastructures, (ii) academic groups, and (iii) industry actors. To this date, existing efforts remain on an institutional level, at best backed by national agendas (i.e. in France and Germany), which gives rise to incoherent developments by different stakeholders.
Large-scale infrastructures across Europe are already committed to ramp up their targetry capabilities, and several won grants for this purpose or are actively taking part in ongoing calls for proposals. This project aims at the coordination of new capabilities across multiple European institutes that will avoid doubling Research and Development efforts.
The goal of the ICED Action is to bring together existing competences and reach out to involve yet disconnected research groups, to maximize the production of new knowledge, possibly giving way to breakthrough discoveries. Networking will add value by bringing together experts with diverse backgrounds, able to investigate problems with complimenting methodology.
The Action will build bridges between traditional competitors and increase their research output through synergetic use of resources. The Action will deliver an interdisciplinary roadmap outlining essential parts of the supply chain and therefore map out investment opportunities. Cost-efficient solutions are feasible when approaching industry actors as a consolidated community demanding larger volumes, and not as small-scale actors.
Especially links between theoretical and experimental groups will allow for faster feedback cycles between theoretical conception and experimental benchmark towards targeted facility developments. A rapid ramping up of capabilities would not be possible without coordination due to the scattered nature of research groups and competencies across Europe.
Outreach and capacity-building dominate deliverables of this action. Their elaboration and implementation require many experts from different fields and background, which is only possible through pooling of resources of participating institutions and efficient networking with creative contributors. The fragmented presentation of outcomes done by individual institutions is less efficient than an Action which is able to highlight the multidisciplinary character of research outcomes. Although user facilities finance beamtimes and support campaigns with equipment, university-based researchers face financial barriers when applying for beamtime allocation based on excellence, because they lack the means to support travel for their teams, particularly junior researchers and students. This Action involves university-based groups, empowers them to conduct excellent science and allows them to benefit from organizational skills developed in larger partner institutions. The Action will promote the use of Short Term Scientific Missions (STSM) to aid researcher mobility, especially offering opportunities to young researchers to participate in experiments, network with their peers and get trained. These efforts foster meaningful knowledge exchange, strengthen collaborative networks, and provide essential human resources for complex experimental work.
The Action ICED will allow researchers to work on emerging topics in an interdisciplinary environment. It will produce new scientific knowledge relevant to the scientific community of thermonuclear controlled fusion, as well as to related disciplines such as plasma physics, nuclear physics, chemistry, nano-material science, 2-photon-polymerization 3D printing, and cryogenics. All impacts are derived from research coordination and capacity building through this Action. Objectives are fully consistent with the EU’s commitment to strategic autonomy in energy, technology, and industrial capability, as outlined in the European Parliament briefing on strategic autonomy and the green and digital transition.
The first objective is design optimization as well as a review of methodology and sharing of successful procedures for joint studies on batch production. It will lead to increase of created knowledge and available datasets in open repositories, allowing for faster R&D cycles and ramped up production capabilities. The second objective is interdisciplinary collaboration to promote cooperation of actors with complimentary capabilities in Plasma Physics, Nuclear Physics, Fusion Science, Chemistry, Material Science, and Additive Manufacturing. It will aid the conception of novel ideas for research endeavours and allow for realization of complex targets that are not feasible to date. The third objective is to create a new interdisciplinary space for the definition of supply chain elements and timelines. It will fast-track the development of a clear path towards IFE, allowing stakeholders to invest resources in key elements. The common objective to make efficient use of resources will be addressed by optimizing use of already allocated research grants and research endeavours of the limited workforce by building transverse connections between projects and their participants.
Short-term impacts that can be achieved in the early years of the Action comprise
- more efficient use of resources provided by national and European grants to individual participants, allowing them to focus on their main effort and solve secondary goals in new collaborations and consortia, by providing a coordinated interdisciplinary environment,
- facilitation of access to user-facilities for exploratory studies, allowing participants to increase the likelihood of beamtime allocation, by joining similar ideas in proposals with larger scope,
- knowledge-transfer to future generations of scientists, allowing graduate students for the first time to obtain a focused insight into the science behind supplying targets for laser fusion, and young researchers to participate in high-level international collaborative research projects, by training events and an early involvement of partners,
Mid-term impacts that can be achieved towards the end of the Action are related to
- optimization of future funding opportunities through a clear guideline for policy makes, allowing projection of steps required towards a target supply chain for IFE power plants, by providing a roadmap,
- engagement of private-sector investment through involvement of industry actors, allowing outsourcing of technology development from mid-TRL to high-TRL, by providing a detailed community-based description of technology required for future supply chains.
Long-term impacts that will be enabled after the end of the Action comprise
- more excellence initiatives in the field of IFE targetry, allowing the continued creation of new knowledge through regular coordinated research efforts, by forming a joint interest group and strong collaborations,
- technology leadership in Europe, allowing participants to obtain an edge with respect to other actors, by management of intellectual property created during the action and knowledge-transfer,
- the conception of compact high-brightness neutron sources in Europe, allowing the exploration of reactor wall materials for fusion power plants and novel studies in nuclear physics, by deriving metrological tools and high-yield target designs from the scientific output of this Action,
- the implementation of IFE power plants in Europe, allowing energy independence for future generations, by creating a lasting community that tackles one of the main pillars of IFE.
Graduate students will for the first time obtain a focused insight into the science behind supplying targets for laser fusion, motivating them to participate with their research.
This action targets experts, industry actors, policy makers and civil society.
The scientific communities of thermonuclear fusion, material science, 2-photon-polimerization 3D printing and cryogenics will be engaged through the creation of dedicated sessions during established conferences and the organization of workshops. Particular goal is to present results in the field of IFE targetry in a special issue in partnership with established publishers of open-source journals. Researchers at user-driven facilities will have available higher-precision targetry and better theoretical models, facilitating experimental design and improving throughput. The specialization of individual efforts inside a new European framework will lead to optimization of investment at facilities and sharing of technology. Decision makers at facilities will obtain a clear roadmap with investment opportunities. Young researchers will benefit from an early active involvement in high-level international collaborations and experiments at large-scale facilities, which will transmit advanced skills for high-energy-density-science experiments, theoretical modelling and target manufacturing. Specific multidisciplinary training events will be organized to foster curiosity and collaboration. Graduate students will be motivated to participate with their research to the emerging topic of IFE targetry by dedicated training events during workshops.
Companies developing target systems, cryogenics, robotics, additive manufacturing, and related metrology will benefit from co-development opportunities and traditional procurement in large-scale volumes addressing all relevant actors at the same time. Industry actors will be contacted in the framework of traditional fairs and invited to participate with their view in workshops organized by this Action. Policy-makers and public funders will obtain a clear roadmap for the development of target manufacturing towards the large-scale production needed for exploratory science today and fusion power plans tomorrow. National fusion programs, major international initiatives and DG RTD will gain an interdisciplinary community that can participate in future calls for high-repetition, high-gain IFE targetry. Through the project’s public engagement activities and outreach materials, the general public and education stakeholders will benefit from increased transparency and understanding of fusion R&D. Annual open days at the partners are expected to attract over 100 participants. Virtual outreach impact will be measured via engagement statistics from our news and communication channels, by expecting tens of thousands of visualizations.