**5. Summary**

This chapter summarises the state-of-the-art of imperfection sensitive composite structures prone to buckling. The current design process according the NASA SP 8007 is shown and its limitations to design structures made of composites are explained. A new promising approach which combines the Single Perturbation Load Approach and a Stochastic Approach - as an alternative to the NASA SP 8007 - is presented. It is further developed in the EU project DESICOS the objectives and expected results of which are given. More details can be found at www.desicos.de.
