Succesful but short-term cooperation

Even though the project is only at its first year, the technical objectives set regarding work to be accomplished by the US partner were successfully met by the latter. However, one must admit that in terms of administration there has been a need for tough negotiations with the EU in order to agree admitting the US partner to the consortium. The EU's decision was to keep the US partner in the consortium for one (or one and a half) year, meanwhile the consortium should search in the European Space for a partner with the equivalent technical qualities, in order to replace him. Despite the administrative issues though, the cooperation between EU-US partners has been exceptionally fruitful. Distance has played minor role, as cooperation was accomplished mostly by means of teleconferencing and data exchange, while there has been a need for the US partner to travel to Europe three times during the first year. The consortium has greatly benefited from the US partner, both in terms of keeping a team spirit, as well as on the technical side. The US partner was responsible for the technical integration of the wiki platform of the project, a job that was initiated and sustained in a most efficient manner. The innovative design of the wiki is of utmost importance for the project, so the transfer of technology know-how to the new EU partner that will replace him is now sought in order for the consortium to keep this competitive technological feature. Cooperation with the US partner also opened the window for the project to access the technology field of wiki development, by participating into world-scale relevant events (such as Wikimania).