This document outlines eight selected criteria for assessing the quality of research partnerships. These criteria include: ensuring equity in cooperation and shared ownership from the beginning, transparent communication and exchange of knowledge, effective negotiation and sharing of responsibilities, promoting mutual learning, enhancing collective research capacities, sharing benefits and merits in an equitable manner, disseminating results broadly in forms that encourage and allow application, and seeking sustainability of the processes and outcomes. The objective of all partnerships should be to contribute to the SDGs, with specific objectives determined in a participatory manner by all key protagonists including prospective end-users, involving different knowledge systems and stakeholders, world views and interests.