Fusion energy is no longer science fiction. Against a backdrop of climate urgency, energy instability, and rising global demand, this technology is emerging as a strategic alternative: clean, safe, abundant, and scalable.

The Future Trends Forum report analyzes the current state of fusion—between scientific progress and industrial breakthrough—and proposes key factors for accelerating its development. Through expert insight, it identifies technological, regulatory, and investment challenges and offers specific recommendations for Europe to seize this unique opportunity for energy and industrial leadership.

Fusion energy represents one of the few realistic paths toward a sustainable, secure, and autonomous energy system. Its ability to generate electricity without carbon emissions, without long-lived waste, and with abundant resources such as deuterium or lithium, makes it a key technology in the face of the climate crisis, rising energy costs, and geopolitical dependence.

In a context of urgent and complex transition, fusion can provide stability to the energy mix and reduce the structural bottlenecks of the current system. It will not replace renewables, but will complement them in a more robust and balanced model. Europe—and Spain in particular—can position itself as a leader in this new technological frontier.

The report identifies the critical elements for bringing fusion from the laboratory to the market. In addition to technological advances, a robust supply chain, industrial scaling strategies, and a sustained financing framework are needed. Experience with renewables shows that accelerating the learning curve is possible with ambitious policies.

Projects such as IFMIF-DONES (in Granada) are essential for building the infrastructure that will enable the manufacture of key components for future reactors. Spain can lead this process if it articulates a coordinated ecosystem between science, industry, and government.

Developing fusion on a commercial scale will require tens of billions of euros over the coming years. This effort cannot fall solely on the public sector. The report highlights the importance of activating public-private partnership mechanisms to share risks, accelerate industrial scaling, and attract strategic investment.

Venture capital and large energy companies are already mobilizing funds. But to consolidate this trend, it is essential to have stable policies, effective governance frameworks, and financial support for pioneering projects, as is the case in the US and the UK.

Regulation of fusion is still under development. Unlike nuclear fission, fusion does not involve the risk of serious accidents or high-level waste, which opens the door to more agile regulatory frameworks tailored to its specific characteristics.

The report recommends moving towards differentiated, safe but flexible regulations that do not hinder innovation. It also proposes anticipating common technical standards at the European level, enabling faster intellectual property transfer processes, and ensuring legal certainty for investors. Collaboration between regulators, scientists, and companies will be key.

Fusion requires specialized talent: engineers, plasma physics experts, materials scientists, advanced manufacturing technicians… But also profiles in AI, software, industrial management, and regulation. The challenge is to train this talent and retain it in Europe.

The report warns of a training gap and proposes specific measures: partnerships between universities and companies, international mobility, STEM programs from an early age, and support for scientific vocations. Spain, with its role in IFMIF-DONES, has a strategic opportunity to become a global leader in fusion training.

Fusion energy has crossed the scientific threshold. Now, the challenge is to build a real industry that will turn this breakthrough into a reliable source of clean electricity. Taking into account the contributions of experts from the Future Trends Forum, the Foundation proposes urgent action on five key strategic areas:

• Technology: accelerate the leap from the laboratory to the real world, deploying critical infrastructure, resolving the integration of subsystems, and leveraging enabling technologies.
• Investment and public-private collaboration: mobilize capital and strategic alliances to accelerate the connection of fusion to the electricity grid.
• Talent: design and execute a global strategy to train and retrain the technical and leadership profiles that this new industry will require.
• Regulation: develop agile, secure, and global regulatory frameworks tailored to the real risks of fusion, not those of fission.
• Communication: build a powerful and honest narrative that generates social trust, legitimacy, and acceptance for the deployment of the fusion industry.

Acting on these five fronts, in a coordinated and ambitious manner, is essential for Europe to lead the energy revolution that fusion represents.