He started his long-term association with ITER at that time when he was appointed member of the ITER Physics Expert Group on Divertor Modelling and Databases in 1994. After that, he joined the EFDA-Close Support Unit at the Max Planck Institut für Plasmaphysik in Garching, Germany, where he was responsible for the EFDA Technology Programme in the area of plasma-wall interactions for ITER. In 2008, he joined the ITER Organization's Science Division and continued his involvement with the ITPA as co-Chair of the Edge Plasma and Pedestal Physics and Transport and Confinement topical groups.

Loarte is co-author of 762 papers in peer-reviewed journals, which have been cited 20,245 times, and has played a leading role in the development of the edge plasma physics basis behind the design of the ITER Tokamak.