INTERREG requires involvement of partners from different countries; however, it seems that trans-boundary scientific work is historically uncommon in these projects. For example, of the 38 scientific peer-reviewed papers published from INTERREG IVA projects, only 21 % contain laboratories from both sides of the Channel (PEGASEAS, 2014). Where trans-boundary collaboration was successful, such as with the VALMER project, success was attributed to the understanding of common goals (Evariste et al., 2014).