IRFM coordinates all CEA activities on magnetic confinement fusion, contracting with the European domestic agency “Fusion for Energy”, or more directly with the ITER Organization. Furthermore, IRFM, the former Head of the Association EURATOM-CEA on magnetic fusion (1959-2013), coordinates all French actions under the new EUROfusion Consortium, in place since 2014. IRFM relations with the laboratories of the French Research Federation on Magnetic Confinement Fusion, including in particular the laboratories of Aix-Marseille University under the banner of the A*MIDEX Initiative d’Excellence, are privileged and subject to a joint strategy.

IRFM's priorities are firstly focusing on the successful construction of ITER and of the Broader Approach projects, then on the preparation of the operation of these new facilities, and finally on the gradual implementation of the necessary tools towards the conceptual definition and the lifting of the major obstacles to the next step, namely the fusion reactor. For this, IRFM has opened its facilities and resources in the form of scientific and technical platforms to the regional, French, European and worldwide fusion community.

The policy defined above drives the IRFM strategy; the latter is divided into four Scientific & Technical axes, i.e.:

• Participating in the realization of ITER and the Broader Approach projects
• Preparing the operation of next generation devices
• Fusion physics understanding by theory and experiments
• Fusion Reactor Studies

If the first objective mainly involves realization projects for the ITER and JT-60SA tokamaks, the others gather most of the scientific activity of the Institute. They mainly address the following topics:

• Plasma regimes of operation: plasma scenario development and key ITER physics elements
• Plasma heat and particle exhaust: safe operation of PFC and plasma edge physics
• Integrated DEMO design and system development