Internationalization in VET teacher education is seen as a key step to develop the readiness and competences that VET teachers need to deal with ongoing challenges in training the kind of skilled worked that present and near future society demands. This includes amongst other not only having multiskilling but social skills such as intercultural understanding and intercultural competence. Students and staff mobility as well as other forms of cross-national cooperation in teacher training are indeed relevant to reach the present written and unwritten goals of VET teacher education. Recently, a group of researchers from various Swedish universities decided to coordinate efforts on a national as well as on a Scandinavian level. One of the results from these efforts was an application for funding from the Swedish Research Council in April 2010 for a PhD-programme on vocational pedagogy (Grant No 2010-5917). In a separate session and in this input we present the common strategies and activities that were planned in order to strengthen the formation of the programmes and thereby also the PhD-students into the field of national, Nordic, and international VET research. A further aim was also to contribute to strengthening Swedish researchers’ national and international networks.