Since the mid-90s, the National Laboratory on Advanced Computer Science, LANIA has adopted as one of its main functions, the organization and promotion of mexican research groups working on IT areas in order to encourage collaboration and linkages with other countries.

Since the mid-90s, LANIA has been participating in different activities related to linkage and promotion of national and international cooperation on IT's. For example, it was proposed and supported the creation of a joint fund called NSF-CONACyT for researchers collaboration on IT's (1994-2000); as a result of the workshops organized within this context, it were established the basis for the creation of the Mexican Society for Computer Science, SMCC (1995) and later on, the formation of the CONACyT's Network for Development and Research in Computer Science (REDII 1997-2000). In a second phase, in the late 90s, LANIA built up organization tasks in order to start cooperation between Mexico and France on IT's, whose results were culminated with the creation of the French-Mexican Laboratory on Information Technologies, LAFMI (2000-2006). In a third phase, since 2007, LANIA decided to promote the organization of a new partnership between Mexico and several European Union countries as part of a pilot project called: Euro-Mexican Laboratory on Information Technologies (LAEMI).

The first phase of the collaboration established with USA, supported by NSF, CONACyT, and the REDII project, helped to detect the first more important research groups in Mexico; organize them according to common research lines, as well as to support their growth and consolidation, which also boosted the progress of the SMCC that today gathers most of the active Mexican researchers working on IT's.

Since 1998, LANIA begins the second phase of its international cooperation by promoting the first cooperation relationships with France, which culminated in the signing of an agreement in 2000 to establish the LAFMI. CONACyT and LANIA signed the agreement by the Mexican side; the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Institut National de Recherche Informatique Automatique (INRIA) and the Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble (UJF), by the French side.

The creation of LAFMI built up an intensive collaboration between researchers from both countries, coordinated by LANIA in Mexico and by the Institute of Applied Matemathiques Grenoble (IMAG) in France. The promotion and encouragement of research and development projects, rigorously evaluated by a pair committees, empowered the linkage among more than 50 institutions and about 100 researchers of both countries. Through the 23 projects approved in the four bilateral calls, LAFMI increased significantly the productivity of Mexican researchers, nearly two articles published a year per researcher on average, promoted the preparation of human resources of master and doctoral level in areas of bilateral interest, therefore, also supported the strengthening of Mexican postgraduate degrees: 27 doctoral students participated in research projects approved, and nearly one thousand postgraduate students were supported to attend the 17 thematic schools, aimed to encourage them to study a doctoral degree, took place between 2000 and 2007.

Another important activity of LAFMI was the creation of international research networks based on thematic schools: Image and Robotics; Distributed Systems and Databases; and Telecommunications. These networks are still in operation today and carry out, a school for master students of both countries per year.

As a result of collaboration achieved by the LAFMI and the French-Mexican Laboratoty on Automation, LAAFMA, also created in 2000, the CNRS decided to install an International Joint Research Unit in Mexico in early 2008, the first cooperation stage with France ended successfully with the creation of the French-Mexican Laboratory on Information Technologies and Automation (LAFMIA), hosted by the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados del Insituto Politécnico Nacional, CINVESTAV-IPN.

Similarly, it is important to mention that the LAFMI operation scheme has allowed CONACyT to measure accurately the results of international collaboration; hence, it has facilitated the decision-making and implementation of policies related to international collaboration. Thus, CONACyT drives back, through LANIA support, the collaboration between Mexico and other European countries on IT's. Consequently, preliminary work has been made in order to establish the arrangements for the creation of a new Euro-Mexican cooperation in IT's called Euro-Mexican Laboratory on Information Technologies, LAEMI.

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