Although discussions are underway within the Action Team 14 of the United Nations COPUOS, there is currently no concerted international plan addressing the impact threat from near-Earth objects (NEOs) and how to organize, prepare and implement mitigation measures. We report on a new international project to address impact hazard mitigation issues, being the subject of a proposal submitted to the European Commission in response to the 2011 FP7 Call "Prevention of impacts from near-Earth objects on our planet". Our consortium consists of 13 research institutes, universities, and industrial partners from 6 countries and includes leading US and Russian space organizations. The primary aim of the project, NEOShield, is to investigate in detail the three most promising mitigation techniques: the kinetic impactor, blast deflection, and the gravity tractor, and devise feasible demonstration missions. Furthermore, we will investigate options for an international strategy for implementation when an actual impact threat arises.The NEOShield project was formally accepted by the European Commission on 17 th November 2011 and funded with a total of 5.8 million Euros for a period of 3.5 years. The kick-off meeting took place at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, in January 2012. In this paper we present a brief overview of the planned scope of the project.

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The concept of project management simulation laboratory in order to research the mechanisms of knowledge acquisition in the project management environment is described. This laboratory provides an experimental environment, where the users share their knowledge and get some insight on project management practice through the simulator. The framework, under which the laboratory operates, is based on: simulation techniques, means that allow knowledge transfer around simulation games playing and the behavioural approach in the design of experiments. The first step in the application of the project management simulation laboratory is the development and continuous improvement of the project management simulation game, which is the main core of the laboratory, by means of the register and study of the interaction between user and simulation game. Then, some hypotheses have been tested in connection with two experimental cases, focused on the analysis of different factors affecting the behaviour of participants while playing project management simulation games. The circumstances under which the participants achieve an optimum learning and the influence of the players' motivation are analysed. The main outcomes and results are stated. Some indications and working lines are posed in order to confirm and broaden the current results of this study.

The paper describes and analyses the experiences obtained in the development of PROSIGA and TRAINER games in the project management environment. The benefits of using simulation games are presented, as well as the outlooks for further work with this type oftools. Different aspects of the games development process are commented and specifically the overall effort involved is exposed.

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