No pain - No gain

International geoscience projects which bring together personnel from natio nal geological surveys and research institutions can be rewarding and produ ctive ventures. The opportunity to pool experience to tackle shared challen ges is irresistible and at times it is as much the collaboration and the in tangible spin-offs of collaboration, which initially attracts the participa nts, rather than a well specified scientific or business case, But as in al l projects there is no gain without some pain and multi-national projects i nvolve some particular pains. This short paper describes the issues and pro blems encountered in running three, multi-national, geoscience information system projects, It is not intended to be just a historical record of the p roblems that these projects faced. Our view is that these projects encounte red generic issues and that in documenting them in an open way, those who a re tasked with planning and managing similar projects, now and in the futur e, may benefit from the mistakes we have made and the lessons we have learn ed, it is also hoped that others, who may have already experienced them, ma y be able to relate to these issues and know they were not alone! As in man y areas of scientific and business endeavour; it is often not the technical problems which pose the greatest difficulty, but the cultural and human on es. A brief review of the three projects is provided the issues and problem s are described and some views are put forward on how they may have been ta ckled better, or indeed avoided.