The third Qualitative Health Research Network Symposium will bring together researchers from around the world to discuss how, in recent years, there have been increasing calls for collaboration between academia and the wider healthcare community in health research. To date, there has been limited critical consideration of these challenges and little is known about the assumptions and effectiveness of these collaborations. In this Symposium, we will explore and develop critical perspectives on: What ‘collaboration’ has come to mean, and the ways in which the concept is growing in prominence; How collaborative relationships are established and embedded, and particularly how qualitative researchers are positioned in interdisciplinary teams; The production and reproduction of power differentials and inequalities in collaborative qualitative health research; How research designs, data interpretation and reporting are affected by collaboration; The role of the “lay researcher” and the extent to which they offer the views and experiences of the groups they represent, as well as how marginalised groups are accommodated; Examples of qualitative health research projects that are conducted in collaborative environments.