Commission 20 of the International Astronomical Union (Positions and Motions of Asteroids, Comets and Satellites) presented a resolution to the XX1st General Assembly in Buenos Aires (1991. This Resolution called for the establishment of an ad hoc Intermission Working Group, with the aim of investigating the threat posed by NEOs and of facilitating a broad international participation in the discussion.

The Working Group on Near-Earth Objects (WGNEO) produced a report to the XXIInd IAU General Assembly in The Hague (1994), in which it was recommended that the investigations and initiatives related to NEO studies be put under the patronage of some international authority. The WGNEO then organised a workshop in the island of Vulcano (Italy), in September 1995, with the title "Beginning the Spaceguard Survey". The aim of the workshop was to emphasise the need for a co-ordinated effort, and to lay the foundations for effective international co-operation on the subject. During an extended discussion of the current situation, the participants in the Vulcano Workshop decided to set up the Spaceguard Foundation, an organisation dedicated to sustaining and co-ordinating current research efforts world-wide. The aims of the Foundation are:

• To promote and co-ordinate at an international level the discovery, follow-up and orbit computation of NEOs;
• To promote the study - from theoretical, observational and experimental points of view - of the physico-mineralogical characteristics of minor bodies of the solar system, with particular attention to NEOs;
• To promote and co-ordinate a ground network (the Spaceguard System), possibly supported by a satellite network, for continuing discovery observations and for astrometric and physical follow-up.

The Spaceguard Foundation was officially inaugurated on March 26, in Rome
with the following membership:

• R.P. Binzel (USA)
• C. Blanco (Italy)
• G.H. Canavan (USA)
• M. Carpino (Italy)
• A. Carusi (Italy)
• C.R. Chapman (USA)
• T. Gehrels (USA)
• G.J. Hahn (Germany)
• A.W. Harris (USA)
• E.F. Helin (USA)
• S. Isobe (Japan)
• L.N. Johnson (USA)
• C.-I. Lagerkvist (Sweden)
• J.V. Lambert (USA)
• B.G. Marsden (USA)
• A. Maury (France)
• A. Milani (Italy)
• D. Morrison (USA)
• K. Muinonen (Finland)
• G. Neukum (Germany)
• S.J. Ostro (USA)
• P. Pravec (Czech Republic)
• D.L. Rabinowitz (USA)
• H. Rickman (Sweden)
• H. Scholl (France)
• P.K. Seidelmann (USA)
• C.J. Shoemaker (USA)
• E.M. Shoemaker (USA)
• P. Sicoli (Italy)
• A.G. Sokolsky (Russia)
• D.I. Steel (Australia)
• G. Tancredy (Uruguay)
• P.D. Tennyson (USA)
• R. West (Denmark)
• G.V. Williams (USA)
• I.P. Williams (UK)
• D.K. Yeomans (USA)
• A.L. Zaitsev (Russia)

This initiative has already received support from the Council of Europe, which has issued a document encouraging member states to support the Foundation's efforts.

The Spaceguard Foundation has established, with the financial assistance of ESA, the Spaceguard Central Node that is designed to act as a central “clearing house” and co-ordination centre for NEO studies and observations. Along with other planned projects, the SCN has placed the Foundation at the forefront of international NEO research, and the Foundation is becoming a leading player in the field. Significant advances are being made, especially with a European and Asian focus, by the Spaceguard Foundation, but its efforts are strictly limited by its lack of funding.