A new baseline (NB) has been proposed by the ITER Project to ensure a robust achievement of the Projects’ goals, in view of past challenges including delays incurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic, technical challenges in completing first-of-a-kind components and in nuclear licensing. The NB includes modifications to the configuration of the ITER device and its ancillaries (e.g. change from beryllium to tungsten as first wall material, modification of the heating and current drive mix, etc.) as well as additional testing of components (e.g. toroidal field coils) or phased installation (start with inertially cooled first wall before later installation of the final actively water-cooled components) to minimise operational risks. In the NB, the ITER research plan (IRP) will be divided into three main phases: (a) start of research operation, with 40 MW of ECH and 10 MW of ICH, which will focus on the demonstration of 15 MA operation in L-mode, commissioning of all required systems, including disruption mitigation, and the demonstration of H-mode plasma operation in deuterium; (b) DT-1, with 60–67 MW of ECH, 33 MW of neutral beam injection (NBI) and 10–20 MW of ICH, which will demonstrate robust operation in high confinement H-mode plasmas in DT up to Q ⩾ 10 and for burn durations of 300–500 s within an accumulated neutron fluence of ∼1% of the ITER machine’s lifetime total, and; (c) DT-2, with up to 67 MW of ECH, up to 49.5 MW of NBI and up to 20 MW of ICH, with the ITER tokamak and ancillaries in their final configuration to demonstrate routine operation in DT plasmas at high Q and the Q ⩾ 5 long-pulse and steady-state scenarios to the final neutron fluence and to perform R&D on nuclear fusion reactor issues. The logic, physics basis, modelling and experimental evaluations carried out to support the NB and the associated IRP are described. These include the impact of the tungsten wall on plasma scenarios and associated risk mitigation measures, as well as the optimisation of the tokamak components and ancillaries to minimise Project risks. Open R&D issues related to these evaluations and mitigation measures are also described together with experimental, modelling and validation activities required to address them.