This thesis examines how European citizens form preferences over future public investment in energy technologies and over the funding structure of nuclear fusion research, in a context still shaped by the post-2022 energy crisis. The analysis is structured around two related research questions. The first asks how perceived concern over rising energy prices is associated with individuals’ preferences across four investment strategies: fossil fuels and nuclear fission, renewables, a mixed strategy combining renewables and fusion, and fusion only. The second asks how institutional trust, considered both as an aggregate measure and through its national and European Union components, is associated with preferences over public, private, joint, or no funding arrangements for nuclear fusion research.