The Partners in Research Project conducted a Forum to help bridge the "research to policy gap" in order to improve the lives of North Carolina's youngest children. The Forum provided a strategic and systematic way for early childhood partners in North Carolina to come together to share ideas and collaborate on research. Key legislators, state agency, and family support group representatives brought forth compelling issues related to their work with young children and families, and shared them with early childhood researchers at the FPG Child Development Institute and collaborating research partners. Through facilitated large and small group dialogue in a day-long Forum (in January 2003), as well as through communication before and after the Forum, participants (approximately 50 in all) co-constructed an educational research agenda and action steps for implementing the agenda. Forum participants, planning committee members, and FPG faculty and staff met and worked together to fund and implement specific projects within the framework of the co-constructed research agenda, to build a plan for sustainability of an annual Partners in Research Forum, and to evaluate the outcomes of the work.