Kongsberg Maritime AS, Simulation & Training has made an agreement with the Research Council of Norway to form a user-directed research program called SIMAR - Simulation of Demanding Maritime Operations - which is aimed at improving simulation training by enhancing focus on human factors. The main goal of the research project is to obtain new and improved knowledge of human factors in a learning environment based on simulated complex maritime operations, in order to develop a new generation of research based, maritime simulators for demanding and risky operations, e.g.