 ASPERA started in July 2006 and is funded by the European Commission over a three-year period.ASPERA has come about through the existence of ApPEC (Astroparticle Physics European Coordination/Consortium) which was founded in 2001 when six European scientific agencies took the initiative to coordinate and encourage Astroparticle Physics in Europe.One of the most important achievements of ASPERA was to produce a common European Roadmap for the future, in the field of astroparticle physics.