Thanks to Giuliano Bettini for posting a link to this story today.

An article published on the Italian news site L’Arena reports that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is close to an agreement to provide funding to the Italian technology research agency ENEA following his visit to ENEA’s research laboratories in Frascati, Italy last week.

According to this article (as best as I can understand from Bing and Google translations, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will provide $1 billion in funding ENEA and its scientists for research into fusion.

Commissioner of ENEA Frederico Testa told L’Arena that the Gates Foundation “is considering financing some projects of ENEA, and our researchers, who are working with outstanding results worldwide, managed to arouse the interest the chief economist of the Foundation, the physics professor Lowell Wood, a close associate of Gates.”

We do know from earlier reports that cold fusion was discussed at the meeting with Gates at ENEA, but it’s not clear from this article whether this funding will be used specifically for ‘cold’ fusion — ENEA’s involvement in ITER (a hot fusion project) is mentioned by Testa.

UPDATE:

Below is a human translation kindly provided by an Italian reader of E-Cat World:

<< An agreement is possibly very near>>

“His foundation is considering in supporting some of our projects” said the commissioner Testa.

Bill Gate’s foundation will invest in some of ENEA’s thermonuclear fusion projects. Much is due to the efforts of ENEA’s Commissioner, the Veronese Federico Testa, who last Wednesday toured Microsoft Corporation’s founder around the research centre of Frascati.

“Bill Gates arrived Wednesday and he paid us a visit, at our ENEA’s Frascati premises for about 3.5 hours” confirmed Federico Testa to this press. “A visit to get an understanding of how our laboratories work, and to witness first hand and asses some of our experiments”, confirmed the commissioner, a professor of economics and business management at the University of Verona.

Asked about the reason of Gate’s visit Testa replied; “His foundation”, referring to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ‘’is evaluating in financing some of ENEA’s projects and researchers, working with outstanding results of worldwide importance, they managed to bring their work to the attention of the Foundation’s economical officer, the Professor of Physics Lowell wood, close associate of Gates.”

The foundation created in the January 2000 by Bill Gates and his wife Melinda French, has as its director William H. Gates Senior, Bill Gate’s father and by Patty Stonesifer , an ex American- delegation member to the UN, worth 38 billion dollars, is considered as the world’s major foundation actively involved in medical research, AIDS and Malaria.

“We have reached a statement of understanding” continued Testa, “to identify practical collaboration steps. The foundation will invest about 1 billion dollars in research. ENEA has all the technical and human characteristics to be successful in this venture: if we manage to get this money it will be not only to my satisfaction, as a commissioner, but also for the government. ENEA is the Italian leader in an international project regarding cold and hot fusion, call ITER. From this project ENEA is a 13% share holder, and with this share, it managed to get to Italy the 65% of funds reserved to it, that is 987 million euro. With all this money, many Italian industries have, and are still working. If the agreement with Bill Gates is reached, it can change Italy’s faith, concluded ENEA’s Veronese number one.