The DONES Programme has taken a decisive step towards institutional and technical maturity. The DONES Steering Committee held a strategic meeting in Misawa, Japan, attended by representatives from 14 countries, as well as delegates from the European Commission and EUROfusion. The meeting served to strengthen the programme’s governance and accelerate the development of the future international neutron source facility, IFMIF-DONES, which will be located in Escúzar, Granada.

During the meeting, the Committee officially confirmed two key appointments for this new phase of the project: Philippe Cara as DONES Programme Manager and Iván Podadera as Technical Director. In addition, the creation of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) was approved, a strategic body that will provide independent advice and reinforce the scientific and technical excellence of the programme.

The Steering Committee, composed of the five Parties to the DONES Programme — IFMIF-DONES España, RBI, QST, Fusion for Energy (F4E) and INFN — also agreed to extend the observer status of several organisations for a further year and welcomed the Polish consortium CeNTE (Scientific and Industrial Centre for New Energy Technologies) as a new observer.

The agenda focused on assessing the programme’s overall progress, with particular attention to reviewing the main governance documents and approving the 2025 Annual Report, which sets out the technical, organisational and scientific progress achieved over the last year. The meeting also addressed the update of key performance indicators and the recalibration of the Parties’ voting weights, as a consequence of the programme’s expansion to five members.

The Committee also reviewed the planning of the forthcoming Design Reviews for the various in-kind packages, received detailed information on the site licensing roadmap, and considered the main conclusions of the latest STAC meeting, held in March.

In addition, possible contributions from new international partners from countries such as Italy (ENEA), Germany and France, interested in joining the development of the programme, were presented.

The next meeting of the DONES Programme Steering Committee will take place in Granada in October 2026, further reinforcing Spain’s role as host country of this strategic scientific infrastructure.

Statements

Philippe Cara, DONES Programme Manager, highlighted that “this meeting marks a turning point for DONES. We now have a solid governance structure and a clear roadmap that will enable us to move forward with confidence towards the implementation phase of the facility.”

For his part, Iván Podadera, Technical Director, emphasised that “the technical progress and international coordination demonstrated in Rokkasho confirm the maturity of the project. DONES is establishing itself as a world reference in the development of materials for fusion.”

Finally, Moisés Weber, Director of IFMIF-DONES Spain, stated that “DONES is a deeply international project, based on cooperation, trust and coordination among countries. Spain, as host country, takes on the responsibility of facilitating this joint effort, connecting the participating institutions and ensuring that Granada becomes a global meeting point for science and innovation in fusion energy.”