In October 2025, the Centre of Construction Law and Dispute Resolution at King’s College London took part in a major step forward for the nuclear fusion industry, the launch of the Collaborative Contract for Integrated Fusion Project Delivery. The new contract introduces a standard set of conditions specifically designed for fusion projects, based on principles of collaborative contracting tested and validated across industry practice.
A team of King’s academics, Professor David Mosey, Dr Roxana Vornicu, Professor Nicholas Gould, and Dr Paolo Giana ,contributed directly to the drafting of the model. Their work followed a Protocol signed in 2024 between King’s College London and Fusion for Energy (F4E), which formalised the cooperation framework and enabled the King’s team to engage in detailed review and co-drafting of the contract.
The model builds upon the FAC-1 Framework Alliance Contract, itself a research output developed at King’s and first published in 2016. FAC-1 has since been adopted in multiple jurisdictions, translated into several languages, and used by employers, consultants, contractors, lawyers, and academics in over 14 countries. For fusion projects, FAC-1 was adapted to address their specific technical, organisational, and risk-management needs. The drafting process drew on lessons learned at Fusion for Energy, particularly from the construction of the ITER Tokamak Complex, and incorporated input from a wide range of stakeholders, including project owners, supply chain representatives, contractors, consultants, and construction law experts.
The model contract establishes an alliance model that promotes integration and cooperation across all stages of project delivery. It provides for a pure alliance during the design phase, with multiple contractors jointly developing the design in Building Information Modellig (BIM), and a relationship alliance during the construction phase, operating under the umbrella of the collaborative contract in conjunction with individual project agreements.
Fusion construction infrastructure is highly complex. The process itself is fascinating and has great potential in the fight against climate change. In fact, nuclear fusion has the potential to end the world’s dependence on fossil fuels because it can produce virtually limitless, low-carbon energy from abundant raw materials. Fusion mimics the process that powers the Sun and the stars. If successfully commercialised, fusion could supply large-scale, continuous energy without the greenhouse-gas emissions or fuel constraints associated with coal, oil, or natural gas.
However, the building of fusion power plants so far, like the ITER Tokamak in the south of France, have shown that fusion infrastructure construction is a long, very complex, and very expensive process. This is due to the inherent engineering complexity of fusion technologies, as well as the involvement of research and development and first-of-a-kind issues. These environments require a multidisciplinary approach, trust, and collaboration between stakeholders. This is exactly why fusion construction project contracts should facilitate long-term collaboration, early contractor involvement and supply chain collaboration as opposed to the typical adversarial approach based on risk transfer that we see in construction projects, transferring risks and responsibilities to another party to the project. This contract embodies the 'best-for-project' and promotes innovation and knowledge spreading among different stakeholders.
These characteristics of fusion projects justified the need for the Model Conditions of Collaborative Contract for Integrated Fusion Project Delivery. The specificities of fusion facility construction are reflected in these Collaborative Contract terms. The Collaborative Contract model proposes a pure alliance collaboration for the design phase of the project, where several contractors prepare jointly the design of the fusion facility in BIM, and a relationship alliance model for the construction phase of the project, when contractors will work under the Collaborative Contract as an umbrella agreement as well as under individual project contracts. These project contracts may be based on traditional construction contract models, or bespoke agreements.
Whilst adapted to the fusion industry in some respects, its structure and many features are based on FAC-1, a contract trialled and tested on procurements of over 100 billion pounds already.These include the concepts of Framework Brief Framework Prices, clauses related to the Core Group’s and Alliance Manager’s functions, Supply Chain collaboration, Objectives, Success Measures, and Timetable.
The launch of this model contract marks a significant step in aligning construction law practice with the emerging needs of the fusion sector. King’s College London, through its Centre of Construction Law & Dispute Resolution, is proud to have played a part in this industry-leading initiative.