In this paper, we describe an ongoing project in which three Educational Research Labs were created in the Netherlands. The overarching aim of the project is to advance collaboration between educational practice and educational research in a sustainable way. The project consists of three parts, which will each be explained in the current proceedings paper: a) a literature review, resulting in a conceptual model of successful collaborative configurations of partners from different educational fields (i.e. practice and research); b) three educational research labs taking place in three Dutch cities, each of them choosing their own particular focus of attention and their own operating procedure aligned with their research aim; c) a study on a metalevel, in which the educational research labs are evaluated. The paper will close with a comparison of what was stated in the initial model, and what has been found in the metalevel study that evaluates the three Educational Research Labs so far.