hercules
The HERCULES PROGRAM
Helion’s external funding initiative is designed to accelerate long-term technical breakthroughs critical to scaling fusion energy.
Proposals
Proposals should be a maximum of four pages and include a description of your team's capabilities and expertise, statement of work, deliverables and funding breakdown, any other current or anticipated funding resources, overall project schedule, and a list of personnel and institutions involved. We encourage you to connect with a Helion point of contact and/or your intended Helion PI counterpart to develop a strong proposal together. Proposal acceptance is not guaranteed and, among other things, will be conditioned on acceptable final terms to be determined by Helion.
Questions may be emailed to hercules@helionenergy.com.
Responses may be limited due to volume.
for Universities, Labs, and Enterprise Scientists
The program supports research labs and universities in developing materials and technologies that will enable the transition from Helion’s first fusion power plants to global fusion deployment.
With over $17M in funding available through 2028, HERCULES will back projects in up to three phases.
Early 2026 proposals were accepted through January 5, 2026. Check back soon for our next submission deadline.
Enabling scaled deployment
hercules
project phases
Phase 1
$10,000 - $100,000
6-8 months
Phase 2
$100,000 - $500,000
12-24 months
Phase 3
$1,000,000 - $2,000,000
University Center of Excellence
Sample future HERCULES projects
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Diagnostics for in-situ health monitoring of material properties and degradation (crack formation/propagation, swelling, conductivity, erosion, etc.)
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Effluent detection methods to distinguish tritium and activated air
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National electrical grid monitoring program for technical and policy assessments
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Scalable fusion generator operator training via simulated environments
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Impurity monitoring in steady operating 20 keV hydrogenic plasma systems
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Remote high-speed command and control of rep-rated GJ-class pulse power systems
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Rep-rated high-fluence vacuum systems in a high-temperature hydrogen environment other than turbo-molecular pumps
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Elemental separation of H, He, and impurities by methods other than permeation membranes and cryogenic pumping
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Efficient isotopic separation of hydrogen by cryogenic distillation
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Passive tritium absorption from room ventilation streams
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Low-cost, room temperature HT-to-HTO catalysts
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Pulsed magnetic isotopic separation of a plasma jet
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Efficient energy recovery from fast plasma jets
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Long-life GW-scale pulsed ionization techniques (>1020 #/cm3) including methods of heating (electrons 10–200 eV, ions 0.1–1.0 keV)
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LLM-enabled MHD modeling of FRC translation
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Rapid modeling of edge biasing in a PIC-code-like WarpX
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Solid-state pulsed power switches (0.1–2.0 MA) with primary rise time <10 μs and an increasing rise time between 0.1–2.0 ms
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Pulsed neutron detectors (high fluence, low duration) in a continuous operating environment
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Continuous dosimetry for pulsed neutrons (>1012 n/cm2 over milliseconds) with live readings
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Projections of radiation accelerated erosion and corrosion of coolant acting on SiC, copper-based magnet materials, and alumina
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Effects of hydrogen (from permeation or neutron interactions) on materials properties of ceramics and metals
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Cooling pulsed copper magnets with super critical gaseous fluids
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Low-cost methods of recycling magnets and first walls
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Characterization of plasma wall interactions in the 10–60 keV range (hydrogen and helium)
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High temperature dielectric PFCs other than SiC
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Effects of long-term tritium permeation and retention in PFCs like SiC
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Development of magnet material with >1 GPa strength and 75% IACS conductivity
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Radiation-hard, structural insulators
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Computational modeling of neutron impacts to materials properties
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Dielectric holdoff degradation due to prompt, pulsed ionizing radiation
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Neutron-ion irradiation correlations for ceramics and accumulatively roll-bonded metals (<200 nm layer thickness)
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Materials properties of SiC at >10 dpa
EXISTING PROJECTS
SAMPLE EXISTING
HERCULES PROJECtS
Calibration of high-flux, pulsed neutron diagnostics using Godiva
Calibration of DD and DT neutron detection with the Gemini and ZEUS dense plasma focus machines
Collaboration on the LaBr3 diagnostic and calibration at the MJOLNIR dense plasma focus
Investigations of SiC considerations for first walls
Tritium testing data for vessel qualification for the Sealed Source and Device Registry
Calibration of high-flux, pulsed neutron diagnostics using Godiva