Keynote: Research and innovation interdisciplinary opportunities and challenges to enable sustainable and decarbonised societies

In his opening speech, Mr. Francois Jacq highlighted the following points: - The societal challenge of combating global warming is becoming ever more apparent, and ever more pressing. To meet it, we will need to make the most of all available means and resources, in particular to implement the transition to a fully carbon-free global and European energy mix. The CEA's vision is of a multi-vector energy system (taking advantage of electricity, heat, and gas including hydrogen), multi-scale and multi-agent (from the local loop to the European scale), within the framework of highly interconnected energy networks. - Nuclear power has a key place in this energy mix of the future, for the success of the energy transition, as a low-carbon, pilot source of energy that contributes to security of supply. The major challenges facing nuclear power today are: - Safety and security - SMR: The light-water SMR for tomorrow and the Gen 4 SMR for after tomorrow; - Flexibility with the growing penetration of intermittent energies; Cogeneration and coupling with heat; A low-carbon source of electricity for the production of hydrogen and beyond for the production of more sophisticated molecules (e-fuel or e-fuel by combining low-carbon hydrogen with CO₂ capture towards the 'nuclear refinery'; - Implementing clean-up and dismantling. Nuclear research must therefore be decompartmentalised and multi-disciplinary, incorporating skills that go beyond those of its traditional disciplines. We need the European Union to define broad guidelines for research, to ensure the continued link between research and industrial capacity, and to support initial and continuing training in the nuclear sector. The EURATOM programme remains an essential tool for contributing to these objectives, and for maintaining its position as a key platform for the energy transition.