In the USA, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) seldom have sufficient resources and infrastructure to support faculty and student research or doctoral education. In contrast, doctoral/research universities (DRUs) have extensive resources and infrastructure to support research and doctoral education. istoricHBoth HBCUs and DRUs have talented faculty and students, and collaboration between faculty and students and HBCUs and DRUs has the potential of increasing the physical and intellectual resources brought to bear in research and student education. However, not all collaborations are successful. We studied four instances of collaboration among HBCUs and DRUs to investigate points of tension, identify successful practices, and gather suggestions for improving existing and future collaborations between institutions with different cultural heritages and organizational priorities.