The ICONS Project creates simulations and scenario-driven exercises for education, training, and research to advance the world's understanding of complex problems and strengthen participants' ability to make decisions, navigate crises, think strategically, and negotiate collaboratively.

Education

ICONS provides a catalog of role-play simulations designed for classroom use, placing students in complex scenarios where they must negotiate, analyze information, make strategic decisions, and collaborate with peers. Simulations cover topics including crisis management, international negotiations, emerging security challenges, and global governance. Instructors can select from pre-designed scenarios or work with ICONS to develop customized simulations for their courses.

Training

We also develop simulations and exercises for professional training. Organizations, agencies, and training consultants use ICONS simulations to help their teams strengthen decision-making skills, practice crisis response, and improve collaborative problem-solving. We will be launching a catalog for off-the-shelf training simulations later this year, and we can also work with you to develop customized exercises designed around specific organizational needs and learning objectives.

Research

ICONS provides infrastructure for research requiring human-to-human or human-to-machine interactions, including for studies of group decision-making, intervention strategies, stakeholder responses, how people interact with computational systems, and a wide range of other research questions. The platform supports experimental designs requiring controlled interaction environments, identity management, and comprehensive data capture. ICONS partners with researchers to configure studies and provides both technical support and methodological expertise.