The NEEDS research program (Nuclear: Energy, Environment, Waste, and Society) aims to mobilize academic research and promote scientific collaboration on the key issues, mechanisms, and fundamental processes associated with nuclear energy. Designed within an interdisciplinary framework, the program fosters dialogue among the physical and chemical sciences, engineering sciences, environmental sciences, and the social sciences and humanities.
Led by the CNRS in partnership with ANDRA, ASNR, BRGM, CEA, EDF, Framatome, and Orano, the NEEDS program serves as a strategic lever to mobilize academic research around the major challenges related to nuclear fission, complementing existing initiatives at the national, European, and international levels.
The originality and added value of this interdisciplinary program are structured around three main pillars:
- An upstream positioning focused on fundamental research, encouraging the engagement of academic research in a context characterized by the relatively long time scales of nuclear projects (reactors, decommissioning, waste treatment and conditioning, disposal, etc.);
- Support for emerging and exploratory projects, aimed at stimulating innovation and attracting new expertise;
- Ongoing scientific coordination, designed to strengthen interactions among partners and support the emergence of high-quality research projects within the program’s thematic areas.
The NEEDS program is intended both to fund research projects and to provide continuous scientific coordination, in order to enhance collaboration among partners and foster the development of high-quality projects in the following key areas:
- Front end of the fuel cycle
- Reactors and fuel cycle
- Nuclear waste
- Decommissioning of facilities
- Environment
- Nuclear energy and society