"NEOShield" is an 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 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. NEOShield will also 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 17th November 2011 and funded for a period of 3.5 years with a total of 4 million Euros from the European Commission plus 1.8 million euros from the consortium partner organisations.