The experience and track record of the Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS) with cooperation projects has led it to be viewed as a model in Project management and formulation both nationally and internationally. The aim of this study is to share lessons learned and best practices associated to success factors identified while participating on cooperation projects of which the following ones funded by European Union stand out: PILA (Network of Intellectual and Industrial Property in Latin America), SUMA (Towards Sustainable Financial Management in Universities of Latin America), GEFIES (Best Practices in Financial Management in Higher Education Institutions), an extension of SUMA with support from the national ministry of education, and the INTELLIGENT CITIES project (Innovation for a Participatory Citizen Culture Through Research of Social Behavior Supported by ICT in the Metropolitan Areas of Bucaramanga and Barrancabermeja) funded by the General System of Royalties. These projects have brought the institution important benefits that help strengthen the structure within the university so as to have greater response capacity for future projects. The methodology of this study is divided into methods and tools.The method presented in this study is the case study according to Yin (1994).The techniques used to support the analysis of the participation of UIS in projects include (i)document analysis, (ii) semi-structured interviews, and (iii)document search. The preliminary results show the influence of the institutional commitment of the university and relationship management with the interested parties as success factors of the development of cooperation projects.