While research in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) is not new, what will be new in the foreseeable future is how such systems are used and integrated in the civilian space. Today''s research in UAS still continues to be recognized as a difficult task, and many challenges still remain. The aim of this proposal is to create an international knowledge alliance between three world-class institutions performing research in different and complementary fields of UAS. For this reason, the Colibri Project at the Computer Vision Group at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain), the Guidance and Control Group at the Department of Aerospace, Power and Sensors (DAPS) at Cranfield University (U.K) and The Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA) at Queensland University of Technology are making a commitment for research and faculty staff exchange that permits to share and complement the expertise of each institution in areas related to applied visual systems to UAS navigation (UPM-CV), guidance and control systems architectures (DAPS) and applications of UAS to civilian tasks (ARCAA). This program comprises a series of staff exchange, Know How transfer and resources/facilities allocation including experimental test beds, laboratories and R&D leading technology facilities.