Partnership constructions for strengthening collaboration between academia and schools has gained momentum in many countries. Initiatives have been introduced to strengthen the professional work of school leaders and teachers through knowledge mobilization (Revai, 2021), and to strengthen the focus and quality of education research available for teacher education, teacher educators and teachers (Korthagen, 2010). In Norway and Sweden state-based initiatives to strengthening such collaborations has been given prominence in both policy and in academia. The Nordic countries are known for their resembling state governed education systems and teacher education (Telhaug et al 2006). Still comparative studies show substantial differences among several dimensions regarding state based RPP initiatives in terms of aims and focus (c.f. Jarl et. al. 2024a, 2024b, Prøitz & Rye 2023). The development of RPPs face several challenges related to physical, linguistic, work-related, financial and cultural distances, which characterize and distinguish between education research and education practice. In these terms RPPs can be considered to challenge the very structures upholding the idea of what constitutes universities and research and schools and its practices. Although the challenges vary depending on context, it has been established that the basic structures organizing the work of researchers and practitioners often hinder the establishment of well-functioning RPPs (cf. Nutley et al., 2003; Lillejord & Børte 2015, Coburn & Penuel 2016).). Considered how these studies illustrate how schools and universities seldom are structed for seamless collaboration the structuring of RPPs to enable collaborations between teachers and researchers seem to be an issue of essence. Guided by the research question; How are state based initiated RPPs in Norway and Sweden structured and experienced by involved participants, this paper study and discuss the emergent structures of partnerships in the Nordic setting by drawing on document studies and in-depth interviews with teachers, school leaders, administrative leaders and researchers in the two country contexts. The preliminary findings of the analysis shows that the established RPPs vary in terms of structuring as well as in aims and focus. While state-based initiatives for RPPs in Sweden encourage bottom-up development of structures for so called practice-based research, the Norwegian initiative is characterized by a top down approach emphasizing partnerships between universities and schools for competence development. Participant experiences imply that the choice of structure and focus influence the depth and quality of the collaborations in varying ways.

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