INFUSE — Innovation Network for Fusion Energy
Provides vouchers for private fusion firms to use United States. laboratory expertise and facilities.
INFUSE, the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy, is a DOE Office of Science Fusion Energy Sciences program that connects private fusion companies with national laboratory and university capabilities. Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory run the program, which exists to turn company needs into focused access projects with the public research system. The funding goes to the lab or university partner rather than directly to the company. Typical awards run from $50,000 to $500,000 for one- to two-year projects, and the program is open to U.S. for-profit applicants in fusion energy. Supported work spans diagnostics, enabling technologies, experimental capabilities, materials, modeling and simulation, and paths to commercialization. Requests for applications run one to two times per year. Strong proposals are narrow, practical, and tied to a specific capability gap. The best fit is a fusion company that already knows which lab method or university expertise it needs and can show that the collaboration will move a real technical problem forward within a short project window. The voucher structure works best when the company has a specific technical bottleneck and a partner that can help clear it quickly.
No upcoming rounds verified. Cadence: Multiple per year.