Increasingly, industry partnerships are important, and even required, for excellence in music therapy education and research. This occurs in the context of work integrated learning (WIL) as required within current government training initiatives, and partner requirements of major Australian granting bodies such as NHMRC and ARC. Music therapy, as an applied allied health discipline, is well set up to form innovative industry partnerships. However, knowing how best to develop and implement such ongoing industry relationships can be challenging. This presentation overviews current knowledge about developing health industry partnerships based on literature, professional secondment and personal experience, tracking two industry partnerships from conception through to change and impact. It outlines processes and frameworks, giving insights into “what works” and guidance towards developing music therapy research and educational projects into the future. After overviewing a broad scope of possible industry engagements and the reasons for these, two particular industry partnership projects are explored and explained in terms of their inception, process, trajectory, outputs and outcomes. One project focuses on the mutual benefits of WIL in the inpatient aged care ward of a major tertiary teaching hospital. The other project looks at a series of projects based on a newly developed model to address the anxiety of women experiencing invasive fertility treatments, as initiated by request and subsequently collaboratively developed with a fertility consultant. In doing so, this presentation demonstrates the additional value of innovative industry partnerships to both educational and research projects which in turn inform the development of impactful evidence-based music therapy practices into the future.