ASNR and JRC strengthen their scientific collaboration
During the first Steering Committee of their Collaboration Agreement, held in Brussels on 13 January 2026, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the French Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire et de Radioprotection (ASNR) have reaffirmed their longstanding commitment to continue developing and strengthening a strong scientific collaboration. ASNR results from a merger from the regulatory body (ASN) and the technical safety organization (IRSN) in 2025.
They approved an amendment to the 2017 collaboration Agreement between IRSN and JRC, extended in 2022, in order to:
- transfer the rights and obligations of the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) related to the Agreement to the ASNR with effect from January 1, 2025.
- add new actions of interest in the field of medical applications of Nuclear Science.
- facilitate the implementation of the Agreement through a simplification of the procedures.
The Steering Committee reviewed the progress achieved since 2022 with five projects completed and five other projects ongoing on nuclear data, fuel safety, radioactivity environmental monitoring, radiation protection, reactor safety, and modeling. The Steering Committee also discussed possible future activities in the fields of medical applications, ageing and mechanical behavior of civil engineering structures, and the creation of a platform of European computer codes for nuclear fuel safety and reactors accident simulations, to name a few.
Both organisations underlined the strategic importance of research infrastructure, competencies and skills, and expressed their intention to promote the exchange of scientists, in particular students, as well as to facilitate the use of their experimental platforms, codes and databases through existing mechanisms (JRC Open Access Programme, OFFERR) or through ad hoc bilateral or multilateral mechanisms.
JRC and ASNR will therefore continue to pursue a close collaboration through this bilateral agreement, in particular through joint projects aiming at advancing research in various fields such as nuclear safety of nuclear fuel or nuclear data as well as through common participation in European consortia such as the Euratom funded projects.
