IPP receives four million euros from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research's new funding programme

In an initial joint project, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) will develop concepts for future fusion power plants with the company Proxima Fusion.

The IPP is also involved as a project partner of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the company Gauss Fusion. 

On 13 March 2024, Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger presented the new funding programme "Fusion 2040 - Research on the way to a fusion power plant". "We want to build a fusion ecosystem of industry, start-ups and science so that a fusion power plant can become a reality in Germany as quickly as possible," said the Minister. Her ministry will add a second pillar to the existing institutional funding with the new project funding programme. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is now also supporting application-orientated collaborative research in the form of a public-private partnership (PPP).

The IPP will receive four million euros from the new programme for the implementation of the first approved magnetic fusion project and will also act as the project coordinator. The project consists of two large content blocks. In the first, IPP will work together with the start-up company Proxima Fusion on fundamental questions relating to the concept of a stellarator power plant. This involves the optimisation of the magnetic cage, the controlled dissipation of heat and the development of a remote maintenance concept. Proxima Fusion is receiving almost six million euros in additional funding from the BMBF.

In the second block, KIT is cooperating with the German fusion company Gauss Fusion. The aim is to develop dismantlable, superconducting coils to facilitate the maintenance of a future fusion power plant. The IPP is involved as a partner.

The BMBF is funding the entire project to the tune of almost 20 million euros over a period of three years.
 

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