1 Experiences of ECOLEAD Research Project: Working in a Cross-cultural and Multidisciplinary Professional Virtual Community B.S. David Romero Center of Innovation in Design and Technology Tecnologico de Monterrey M.C. Servane Crave France Telecom R&D Division University of Nice Sophia Antipolis M.C. Nathalie Galeano Center of Innovation in Design and Technology Tecnologico de Monterrey Dr. Arturo Molina Vice-Presidency of Research and Technology Development Tecnologico de Monterrey Abstract Skills for working and interact in a cross-cultural and multidisciplinary environment are needed to achieve the goals of the projects developed under the schema of Professional Virtual Communities (PVC). ECOLEAD consortium is one example of a PVC that represents a group of research scientists from universities, industrial companies and non-profit organizations from 15 countries, working in the area of collaborative networks. In this kind of project, where researchers generate new knowledge through members' interaction and collaboration, different challenges arise such as: the use of information and communication technology tools to support communication; the collaboration and interactions between dispersed teams and professional individuals in the project; the researchers’ ability to express and communicate their ideas in a foreign language to other researchers that sometimes don’t share the same background; the researchers’ capability to perform multiple roles and being involved in more than one task at the same time; the cultural and social aspects during negotiation process, especially for the definition of managerial issues and intellectual property rights aspects, considering different cultures of partners and the culture which is developed in the collaborative project. This paper will detail the main characteristics of the ECOLEAD project and will analyze the challenges that this type of projects face. Finally, some mechanisms and recommendations that were