There is growing interest in using closer partnerships between researchers and research users to increase the appropriate application of research evidence in policy and practice. While this supplement reports and assesses a number of these initiatives in health care, this article reviews the evidence in support of partnerships from elsewhere. Drawing on a substantial cross-sector review of research impact initiatives, we extract lessons for health care from partnership evaluations in social care, education and criminal justice services. A reasonable and robust evidence base supports the use of partnerships as one means of increasing research uptake. Although requiring substantial investments of time, resources and commitment, and suffering from a number of possible pitfalls, we conclude that such partnerships offer great potential for increasing research use.