The ORIENT-NM project (Organisation of the European Research Community on Nuclear Materials) has laid the foundations to launch a co-funded European partnership (CEP) on nuclear materials as part of the Euratom work-programme 2023-25.
ORIENT-NM was instrumental in raising interest among stakeholders and demonstrating the value of a coordinated and ambitious research and innovation EU-wide partnership. The Vision Paper and Strategic Research Agenda of ORIENT-NM until the horizon of 2040 put forward five research lines transversal to all classes of nuclear materials, which are crucial to bring innovation in all types of nuclear materials to improve further the safety and efficiency of both current and future reactors. ORIENT-NM also elaborated a structure and an implementation scheme for the partnership that provide flexibility and efficiency, while enabling the involvement of research and industrial stakeholders. These plans now have to be brought to practice by preparing the CONNECT-NM partnership proposal (Coordinating the European Research Community on Nuclear Materials for Energy Innovation).
The presentation will highlight the achievements of ORIENT-NM and present the main features of the CONNECT-NM proposal currently under preparation, in order to involve in the future partnership an as-wide-as-possible community .