Germany’s €500m fusion programme requires tritium and supply chain plans

Applicants must name supply chain gaps and expected tritium demand in their roadmaps

(Image courtesy of SPRIND)

The Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation, known as SPRIND, launched Germany’s fusion milestone programme for the federal research ministry on October 7 with €500 million available by 2029. Its call for submissions adds detail to the announcement. Every applicant’s roadmap must set out its supply chain, name the gaps in it and state how much tritium and lithium-6 it expects to need, with applications closing at 6pm CET on January 13, 2027.

What the fusion programme asks applicants to document

The programme does not cover construction of the demonstration plant. Its final milestone is a Technical Design Report and cost book for one, due by 2037 at the latest, and the programme closes no later than December 31, 2037. Applicants need fusion as their primary business, a credible aim of building a plant in Germany, and a main place of business and funded value creation predominantly there.

Where the roadmap gets specific is the supply chain. Applicants must list the external technologies and components they need and when, name their strategic partners and any supply agreements, and say which milestone triggers the capacity build-up they require. They must also lay out the gaps that remain and how they plan to close them, and where no commercial supplier exists, name scientific or other development partners for it.

A separate section turns to physical supply. Companies must state how much tritium and lithium-6 they expect to need until the programme ends and how they plan to obtain it, and list the large facilities, laser systems or neutron sources they will rely on. They must also set out when, where and how neutron testing could take place. SPRIND intends the answers to feed the risk assessment and help define where the programme meets other publicly supported work.

How the fusion programme funds companies

The money comes from the federal Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality, with up to €2.5 billion in total public support as the longer-term ambition. SPRIND expects to lean mainly on its own equity investments in phase one, alongside convertible loans, loans and grants, and plans to explore guarantees and sureties with other public institutions. Budget approval governs all of it, including the planned continuation after 2029.

Leveraging private capital is a stated aim, and the agency targets holding each participant’s cumulative programme funding to about 50 percent of the investment needed to reach the final milestone. Equity taken on market terms, for example alongside an independent private investor, counts at only a factor of 0.2 in that sum while state aid counts in full. SPRIND also intends to award at least 30 percent of programme funds aid-free over the long term.

The programme works as a competition. SPRIND supports several companies in parallel and aims to concentrate funding on the strongest approaches, while keeping effective competition between approaches alive where that is technically and financially justifiable. Support ends if a company misses a termination milestone, but also if its roadmap loses ground against alternative approaches or limited funds force a narrower field. The call expects that narrowing by the second phase, because of budget limits and even where no technical milestone is missed, and reaching a milestone does not in itself guarantee further funding.

Evidence needed for the 2029 demonstrator decision

In principle, the programme plans to decide in 2029 which technology demonstrators to back. It targets at least one laser fusion machine and one stellarator, though it allows a departure for technical, economic or financial reasons, and SPRIND may review support for other concepts, in coordination with the ministry, if new findings change the assessment. Demonstrators should aim for a scientific energy gain above one, but an applicant can propose another design if it shows equivalent de-risking for the route to a power plant.

Funding a larger demonstrator needs a separate decision with its own conditions. SPRIND will look for a completed technical design, an independent cost review, private co-financing and a concept for decommissioning or repurposing, with the most design-critical elements already sufficiently demonstrated. Where federal aid covers more than half of the build, or public money pays for long-term operation, the machine must open to public research after an initial use phase.

Every roadmap due on January 13 must state the gaps in its supply chain and when capacity has to be built. Independent external experts will judge how completely it does so, and supply chain quality sits among the technical evaluation criteria alongside IP and risk structure. SPRIND will then announce the admitted participants, with first financing possible from 2027.

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