Africa: A Laboratory without Borders in the Earth Science and Environment

European scientists decided to create the IRGGEA (International Group in Geophysics Europe Africa) in order to pursue the scientific work started during the IEEY project. The main objective of IRGGEA was to introduce new fields of research in Africa and built teams of African scientists recognized at an international level in these new fields. To reach this goal, we developed days after days methods to manage smoothly a large network of scientists from developed and developing countries. After a short introduction on the field of research developed in the IRGGEA, we present the organization of the work based on sharing practices and the results obtained in terms of scientific publications and socio-cultural aspects as the increase of the number of women and positions for students in their countries. Such an experience is easy to reproduce