The topic of collaboration is delicate, several different factors are involved in making collaborations successful. The word successful is a charged word where it then implies success for everyone involved in this collaborative work. This thesis aims to investigate the notion of success by both academia and public sector in collaborations where academia plays a crucial part. The thesis descent from a critical realist standpoint where the purpose is to find the underlying mechanisms and structures of the events, in this case, within collaborative work. With a cross-sectional design the empirical data was collected through workshops with representatives from the public sector and publicly funded organisations and interviews were held with researchers, staff and students from Mälardalen University.  The data was analysed through a thematic analysis with deductively generated themes. The theory the thematic analysis was based on consider subjects such as university third mission, quadruple helix, Involving businesses in education, Innovation intermediation, the multifaceted roles of innomediaries, the process and success of innomediaries, collaboration structures, spaces for collaboration, system approach, cross-boundary teams and the researcher’s role. Lastly, the results is a set of capabilities built upon the found underlying structures and mechanisms, these capabilities are seen as valuable for academia.