DOE Fusion Energy Sciences

Funds DOE Fusion Energy Sciences, guiding fusion and plasma research toward practical commercial energy pathways.

The DOE Fusion Energy Sciences office, usually shortened to DOE FES, is the DOE Office of Science program office for fusion and plasma research. It sits under DOE SC as SC-34 and is the federal government's main science office for the route from basic plasma physics to commercial fusion energy.

Its portfolio reaches national laboratories such as Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Argonne, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos, and it uses grants and partnership agreements to fund work through INFUSE, FIRE Collaboratives, the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, and the Genesis Mission AI solicitation. INFUSE awards reach up to $500,000, FIRE Collaboratives reached $128 million across seven teams in FY2025, and the milestone program was authorized at $370 million through FY2026.

DOE FES is strongest for teams that can move between laboratory science and engineering milestones, especially projects in fusion, energy materials, AI-enabled science, and hardware. Its approach is deliberately translational: it keeps the physics mission inside the Office of Science while using lab-industry partnerships to shorten the distance from plasma research to deployable fusion systems.