 The cooperation of partners is the skeleton of a strategic partnership project. It means that a balanced and solid partnership is crucial to make the project successful. The partnership should be composed by partners who all bring something to the project and all can take something out of it. Partners cannot only consume or only deliver, they must learn from and with each other. Partners should not join a ready-made project. Instead they all should be actively involved in all phases of the project, from design to filling in the application, from needs analysis to evaluation. They should be complementary and bring in specific expertise in order to contribute to the project and learn from others. It is challenging and there is no guarantee of success, but without the active contribution of all partners the project will not work as it should. Finding the right partners should be based on the common need, the necessary specific expertise and the willingness to step into a long-term cooperation. Although one of the potential partners often comes up with the original idea for a strategic partnership project, all partners should be involved as soon as possible to develop the idea together into a project plan. Building a strong and equal partnership is the key. Mapping out which partner brings which expertise and setting the learning goals are the base for the division of tasks and responsibilities. Partners will have common responsibilities like communication, coordination, developing local activities and dissemination of results. However each partner should also have specific tasks and responsibilities related to expertise. For example, a partner who has expertise in managing large projects could take on the overall coordination of the project, partners that have expertise in visual design could be responsible for making a project video or website and a partner with expertise in research could be in charge of the monitoring and evaluation of the project. Active involvement of all partners means that all partners take part in all activities, transnational meetings and coordination. A balanced division should also be visible in the budget and the program. For example, partners can organize or host one of the activities such as a transnational meeting, learning mobility or a multiplier event. In case of intellectual outputs, staff from all partner organizations should be involved in their development. Giving responsibility to other partners can be challenging, but being and feeling responsible for the project is often a good reason for partners to stay involved throughout the whole project. It also contributes to a strong partnership. Long-term cooperation is often the most challenging element of the project for several reasons. Parkners have different cultural and professional backgrounds, organizational structures, missions and visions. The project can be the main focus and the core activity for one partner and just one of many projects for the other. Parkners tend to talk about the general vision and main elements of the project in the design phase. During implementation, details become more prominent. There is a risk of not having a consensus about the details or how to make everything work. Organizations usually work on several projects in parallel, each with their own rhythm. Sometimes a project needs more attention, sometimes less. It is very possible that not all partners will be able to focus on the partnership project at the same time. With all the preparation time and the follow-up time, partnership projects may last between one and five years. In this time, many things can change, like the project team, other people working in organizations, priorities within organizations, funding conditions, target groups, etc. Parkners are located in different countries and usually the cooperation takes place remotely. This makes communication challenging and slower than when you work with people in the same office or the same city. It is important to talk within the partnership about all these issues before handing in the application. A clear and solid communication plan or strategy that all partners agree on is necessary to deal with these challenges. The communication plan should also involve other stakeholders such as national agencies, local communities, local governments and other stakeholders in the field or other educational fields. It is important to be clear about who is communicating what and to whom throughout all phases of the project. If the partnership is strongly built from scratch, it will likely overcome these obstacles and make the project a valuable learning and development experience for all the partners involved. Related to the cooperation of partners, the assessment of the quality of your application will focus on an appropriate mix of complementary partners with the necessary profile, experience and expertise to deliver all aspects of the project successfully, logical distribution of responsibilities and tasks, active involvement of all participating organizations, existence of effective mechanisms for coordination and communication inside the partnership and with other stakeholders. Additionally, the quality of your application may be increased by involvement of partners from different fields such as schools or adult education, involvement of newcomers which means organizations that have not been involved in Erasmus Plus before.