General Frequently Asked Questions

We are self-aware dwarfs on giants’ shoulders, thankful for the body of knowledge published by public labs over the decades, eager to “give back” and jointly advance fusion. For this, we regularly present our results at conferences, we have published or recently submitted several journal articles, and we welcome scrutiny by the scientific community. At the same time, to protect some findings from unauthorized commercial exploitation, we ask our scientists and engineers to “patent first, publish later” (or to be precise, submit the patent application first, then the paper -without waiting for the patent to be granted). The good news is that patent applications are much faster to write, and no scientific paper has been delayed in this process.

We already have several collaborations in Europe and the USA (see https://renfusion.eu/people) and are constantly on the look for more collaborations with public organizations and, on selected topics, with private companies. The only criteria are that collaborations be mutually beneficial, and that timescales, cultures and risk-profiles are reasonably well-aligned. Fair warning: we strive to be fast and explore unbeaten paths, with the result that either we will publish a major paper together, or none. Steady streams of incremental papers are not our forte. Other than that, sky is the limit and there are more and more grant opportunities for public-private partnerships. If you have an idea for a collaboration, send us an email at contact@renfusion.eu !

There are several formats:
— Informal collaboration: each organization pays for its scientists/engineers to realize a design, simulation, or experiment, or build an instrument or device of common interest. Ideally, the organizations will complement each other’s strengths. The topics, a rough roadmap and division of roles can be agreed in a memorandum of understanding of a couple of pages – we like to keep things simple.
— RF and the French government, through the CIFRE program, can co-sponsor a PhD thesis at a French university.
— RF and a university, anywhere in the world, can co-sponsor a PhD thesis or post-doc.
— Joint grant application to a French, Swiss or European program admitting or even encouraging public-private partnerships. As a start-up, it might be a win-win if we partner with universities, national and international labs, and select large companies. For international applications, as a French- and Swiss-based organization, it might be good to partner with organizations in other countries.