Collaboration between policymakers and researchers in education is highly desirable yet difficult to achieve state of affairs. A multitude of well documented obstacles impede the formation of long lasting and fruitful relationships: Research is a prolonged and well-planned activity, whereas policymaking often requires immediate solutions to urgent problems in rapidly changing realities (Kingdon, 2010); Researchers might be interested in general theoretical issues or presenting alternatives to current modes of thinking and acting whereas policymakers need concrete answers in order to make practical decisions for which they are held accountable (Hargreaves, 1999; Locke, 2009); Research findings are often tentative and inconclusive (Hargreaves, 1999; Locke, 2009); Researchers may readily point at past weaknesses but are unable to predict which policies might succeed (Edwards, Sebba, & Rickinson, 2007);  Implementation of research results may require budgetary and bureaucratic reorganization that is beyond the capacity of the research commissioning policymakers (Watson, 2008); Policymakers have weak capacity to retrieve and critically evaluate research findings whereas researchers have weak capacity to mobilize their knowledge to policymakers (Levin, 2011; Cherney & al., 2012).  

Over the years there have been attempts to formulate multivariate models to predict successful knowledge adoption by policymakers, yet the explanatory power of the models that have been empirically tested was not satisfactory (Brown, 2012; Landry, Amara & Lamari, 2003).

              The current study examines the conditions for successful collaboration between researchers and policy-makers from the latters’ point of view.

The research questions were: 1. How do policymakers describe their motivations in commissioning research and cooperating with researchers? 2. What favorable conditions are conducive to successful collaboration, from their point of view, and what unfavorable conditions undermine it? 3. What lessons might be drawn from their experiences in order to promote research initiatives and research use by policymakers in education?  

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