Starting from fundamental observations about the need and usefulness of cross-national, North/South-comparison around pressing social themes, including questions of how to theorize, investigate and respond adequately to diversity, the proposed Strategic Institutional Partnership seeks to invest in a four-year programme of N/S-exchange of scientific results, institutional experiences and “best practices”, while engaging in a theoretical-conceptual debate which can help provide a framework for developing future forms of knowledge production, their policy implications and corresponding strategies of implementation. In a practice-oriented approach, theory and application are typically not viewed as separate exercises, but are instead viewed as interdependent and constantly in dialogue: e.g. experiences of policy formulation and implementation feed into theoretical understandings, while conceptual debate informs practical strategies of intervention. At the heart is an epistemology which maximizes necessary exchange between theory and application.