Nora is one of two researchers in a large union. She obtained her Masters degree and later took all the courses for her doctoral program. She considers herself a feminist. Most of the work she does at the union is research to access and organize information for bargaining purposes.

Paul works as a program manager for a provincial funding agency. This agency mainly funds research projects carried out by academically based researchers but has a stream of funding reserved for community based research, which traditionally attracts collaborative projects. Through this job, Paul is exposed to many projects from several fields and is very familiar with the criteria used by the agency to evaluate research proposals.

Peter is a researcher in a large research department of a union. After working in the field, he obtained his Masters degree. Once he joined the union staff, he did research in a wide range of topics facilitating workers' research teams, which include university professors.

Rena is the executive coordinator of a centre of excellence. Describing herself as a feminist, her research interests lie in doing research that is useful to those that the research is about. Her role in the centre puts her in a position of facilitating collaborative projects between university researchers and community groups.

Tamara is a university professor who has designed several collaborative projects involving practitioners and graduate students as well as other university and community researchers. She has written articles and chapters about the topic.

Thomas works in a large union. After working in the field for many years, he went to school and obtained his doctorate. He has taught university classes as a sessional instructor. He works in the professional development division of the union. Through this job, he has been part of research projects involving workers, administrators, government officials and university researchers. His job, as he describes it, is make sure all the parts are present for a successful collaboration to occur. His main interest is to give workers a voice in developing knowledge.