Nuclear power: Mimit and Mase kick off the race for companies to apply for IPCEI funding: proposals due by 3 December

Two weeks after the Senate’s final vote on the enabling bill for the return to nuclear power, the Government is opening up the industrial front. The Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy and the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security have begun collecting expressions of interest from Italian companies wishing to participate in the IPCEI Int – Innovative Nuclear Technologies, the project of common European interest dedicated to the development of innovative nuclear technologies. The call for proposals published by Mimit sets 3 December 2026 as the deadline for submitting proposals.

The objective set out by the two ministries is to strengthen Italia’s role in next-generation nuclear technologies and in industrial sectors considered strategic for Europe. The Mimit will publish all the relevant information on its website and will manage the selection of Italian proposals until formal notification is given to the European Commission. The procedure is the same as that already followed for other IPCEIs: should the project be assessed positively, the phase of notifying Brussels of the funding will commence, in accordance with the rules on state aid.

The European process began on 10 April 2025, when the Commission approved, at the Joint European Forum, the launch of preparations for a potential new IPCEI on innovative nuclear technologies. At that stage, the two ministries announced that, for the first time since the establishment of IPCEIs, Italia had been recognised as the European coordinator, particularly for fusion technologies. The EU strategy on small modular reactors (SMRs) then entrusts Member States with the task of designing the IPCEI, including SMRs, with the aim of establishing Europe as a global leader in the sector.

Urso links the announcement to the recently approved law, which he describes as ‘crucial for attracting investment, developing new technologies and strengthening the country’s industrial capacity’. With the IPCEI, he added, the aim is to place the manufacturing sector ‘at the heart of Europe’s new energy era’. For Pichetto, the initiative forms part of the process of establishing the necessary framework for the development of nuclear power in Italia and will enable the promotion of projects ‘with a high degree of innovation and concrete industrial prospects’, by bringing together businesses, research and technological expertise.

The domestic regulatory framework is yet to be finalised. The Senate approved the enabling act on 23 September with 81 votes in favour, 51 against and 7 abstentions, with no amendments to the text passed by the Chamber of Deputies on 4 June. The law mandates the Government to adopt one or more implementing decrees within twelve months of its entry into force, starting with a National Programme for Sustainable Nuclear Energy and Fusion. Pichetto has set the target of adopting the decrees by the end of the year.