  The design of turbulence optimized stellarators has so far relied on
three-dimensional equilibrium codes such as VMEC in order to find the minimum
of a given objective function. In this work, we propose a complimentary
approach based on the near-axis expansion to compute the geometry parameters of
neoclassicaly optimized stellarators used in turbulence studies. As shown here,
the near-axis expansion can be a reasonable approximation of the geometric
parameters relevant for turbulence and stability simulations of the core of
existing optimized stellarator designs. In particular, we examine the geometry
coefficients that appear in the gyrokinetic equation, the drift-reduced fluid
equations and the ideal ballooning equation. This approach may allow for the
development of new stellarator optimization techniques significantly faster
than conventional methods.
