Programme of Institutional University Cooperation (IUC) of the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR) with the Universidad Mayor de San

The goals formulated by VLIR, in the sense of capacity building for internationally competitive research - and the situation at UMSS, with few academic staff members with postgraduate degrees and research experience - seemed worlds apart. Considering this initial gap, it should be noted that much progress has been made. UMSS counts today with several competitive research centres that are sustainable even without VLIR collaboration in the future.However, the different centres have not reached the ultimate goal, stated by VLIR and UMSS, of creating "Centres of Excellence". Several reasons stand out for this lack of accomplishment. Considering the initial gap between VLIR goals and Bolivian reality, creating Centres of Excellence may be too far fetched. - Labour conditions for faculty at UMSS do not favour research. - Financial management at UMSS is complicated. - There are no clear policies supporting research at the national or institutional level. - Direct collaboration between Belgian and Bolivian academics is restricted by distance and language. - Doing research remains mainly an individual effort. First and foremost, it needs tot be pointed out that the collaboration between UMSS and VLIR started out with little clarity regarding the rules of the game. That is, several criteria now in place for projects funded by VLIR have been established well after 1997. As such, the development of collaboration projects has been, in many aspects, a mutual learning experience, helpful in many ways, but not always living up to the standards established along the way. Some projects, particularly the CEPLAG, were set up as possibly good ideas, but without clarity about aims or future problems on behalf of both parties. Despite these problems, it stands out that all projects have been managed correctly and that an important research capacity has been built up at UMSS.