Følgeforskningscenter
With a 40,000 Euro grant from the Danish government, researchers from four Danish universities have set up the new fusion consortium DANfusion. This new initiative will serve as a forum where these physics and engineering researchers can come together to work on research and development for fusion.
DANfusion is the newest of Denmark’s følgeforskningscentre (research follow-up centres) funded by Denmark’s Ministry of Higher Education and Science. These centres exist to strengthen and grow the national academic communities connected to European Big Science facilities. With DANfusion, there are now four centres linked to ITER, F4E and EUROfusion, CERN, ESA, ESO, ESS, ILL, XFEL and soon the EMBL.
Enhancing collaboration
In addition to the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the Danish EUROfusion member, DANfusion includes research groups from Aarhus University, Aalborg University and the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. DANfusion will use their government grant to allow researchers to travel to national fusion experiments and international fusion experiments to get to know the field. The grant will also facilitate national meetings to foster collaboration, and will allow PhD students to join fusion-relevant summer schools.
“Our goal is to strengthen the connections and collaboration between all the fusion-relevant research groups at Danish universities”, says DANfusion leader and fusion veteran Søren Bang Korsholm at DTU. “Working together on a Big Science theme like fusion offers great advantages to Danish researchers – and to the field we’re joining!” As an example, he mentions the experience in remote handling and power electronics that the new research groups bring in. “The fact that three of our members already won EUROfusion research grants on their first application shows that we can offer valuable contributions to EUROfusion by involving a broader field of researchers “.
Later this year, the DANfusion partners will meet for an extended kick-off meeting to discuss joint activities in research and knowledge transfer. At EUROfusion, we look forward to hearing more from them!
BACKGROUND
EUROfusion represents the collaborative spirit of the European fusion research landscape. Our thirty consortium members in the EU, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Ukraine connect over 150 universities, research institutes and companies to the European effort to realise fusion energy, with access to research programmes, funding and top research facilities.
