Strengthen research and innovation in the field of energy
By Alexandre Legris, Director of the Decarbonised Energy Programme Agency
One of France’s priorities for research and innovation is to strengthen strategic thinking by improving coordination among the various stakeholders in order to optimize the overall organisation of the research and innovation ecosystem and to produce relevant forward-looking studies.
The creation of programme agencies focused on specific themes is one facet of this strategy, alongside robust fundamental research. The energy transition is one of society’s major challenges, with the objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. To address the challenges associated with this transition and to find effective solutions, the establishment of the Programme Agency “Decarbonised Energy” (APED), hosted within the CEA, aims to strengthen research and innovation in this field by integrating all of its societal dimensions (public engagement and support, economic incentives and regulation…).
APED must be able to maintain a comprehensive overview of the national and European situation in the field. It was established independently of the CEA’s own energy research activities and therefore covers energy research topics that are not addressed by the CEA.
Its mission is to develop an integrated, systemic approach (with upstream-to-downstream perspectives in mind) that does not confine itself to a list of technologies but instead properly considers how they combine and interact, with the aim of delivering solutions for the energy transition.
The agency’s remit covers: energy production and conversion technologies; modes of transport and storage for that energy; energy networks and the understanding of their operation; the management of materials essential to energy development within a circular economy approach (knowledge and design of materials, geopolitics of materials, recycling, substitution of critical materials); and the study of technology- and solution-adoption practices in the context of building a socio-technical system, in connection with the humanities and social sciences and with industry.
The analysis carried out at its creation led APED to focus its initial work on several themes that are of major importance for the future:
- future nuclear systems, whether fission or fusion, for many applications (electricity generation, urban or industrial heat, cogeneration, hydrogen synthesis…);
- photovoltaic energy, wind energy and marine energies;
- batteries for mobility and energy storage;
- biofuels for mobility;
- energy systems and networks;
- life-cycle analysis of hydrogen, for mobility, storage and the decarbonisation of energy and industry;
- access to critical materials essential for energy systems;
- the carbon cycle and its valorisation.
APED aims to be a strategic actor in its field and to take part in defining and managing priority research themes, to work to organise scientific monitoring within its area of expertise, to interact with European and international counterparts and to ensure the development of research infrastructures. It can also propose research programmes to public authorities or respond to requests, as it did during the reflective work on research and development priorities carried out as a follow‑up to the Revue Nationale Stratégique in 2025, which was presented in early 2026 at a seminar with government administrations in the presence of the Minister responsible for research.
The agency operates collegially. Composed of staff from the CEA, CNRS, IFPEN and universities, the APED team (around ten people, most working part‑time) works in close interaction with three committees. The Partner Committee, chaired by the CEA’s General Administrator, functions as a “board of directors” that sets the agency’s orientations, approves its roadmap and validates its actions. It brings together all academic stakeholders (research organisations, EPICs (public industrial and commercial establishments), universities and engineering schools) as well as representatives of industrial sectors and state agencies (ANR, SGPI, SGPE, etc.). The concrete implementation of APED’s actions is discussed within the Operational Committee, chaired by the CEA’s Director of Energies. Twice a year, APED presents its activities and outlook to the administrations sitting on the Liaison Committee, chaired by the Director‑General for Research and Innovation.
For the coming period, APED has set three concrete objectives: to monitor on behalf of the State the three new PEPRs that the Agency proposed and that were selected (“Fundamental Research for Nuclear Energy”, “Sustainable Hybrid Fuels” and “Energy Networks of the Future”); to produce between four and six position papers per year that could potentially lead to the development of new research programmes; and to establish a national mapping of research competences in the energy field, based on automated technologies using AI, which it will update periodically and share with its supervisory authorities and partners.