Academic collaborative centres – transformation youth (ACCs) are long-term partnerships between one or more (local) youth services, universities, (local) governments, schools (and educational programs) and clients. The program is funded by the Netherlands organization for health research and development (ZonMw) and supports 12 ACCs in the field of youth care distributed around the Netherlands. The centres aim at bridging the worlds of the academia and youth care practice, thereby fostering evidence-based working on the one hand and needs-oriented research on the other. The main purpose of the ACCs is to improve knowledge generation and transfer between practitioners, policymakers, researchers, the education sector and clients and, as such, improve youth services.