"For the real life assessment of vehicle’s safety in frontal collision the compatibility (described by the self protection level and the structural interaction) between the opponents is crucial. Although compatibility has been analysed worldwide for years, no final assessment approach was defined. Taking into account the EEVC WG15 and the FP5 VC-COMPAT project activities, two test approaches are the most important candidates for the assessment of compatibility. Both are composed of an off-set and a full overlap test procedure. However, no final decision was taken. In addition another approach (tests with a moving deformable barrier) is getting more and more in the focus of today’s research programmes. Within this project different off-set, full overlap and MDB test procedures will be analysed to be able to propose a compatibility assessment approach, which will be accepted by a majority of the involved industry and research organisations. The development work will be acompanied by harmonisation activities to include research results from outside the consortium and to early disseminate the project results taking into account recent GRSP activities on ECE R94, EuroNCAP, etc.."