Cooke et al. Health Research Policy and Systems (2015) 13:25

International policy suggests that collaborative priority setting (CPS) between researchers and end users of research should shape the research agenda, and can increase capacity to address the research-practice translational gap. There is limited research evidence to guide how this should be done to meet the needs of dynamic healthcare systems. One-off priority setting events and time-lag between decision and action prove problematic. This study illustrates the use of CPS in a UK Research collaboration called Collaboration and Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC).