With its network of partners both within Germany and around the globe, the Rathgen-Forschungslabor sustains a continuous and lively exchange of information with similar institutions.

It is active in the Cultural Heritage Research Alliance, a collaboration set up in 2008 between three partners: the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, and the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, which it represents. This collaborative venture aims to harness and combine the theoretical, scientific, and cultural competencies of the partners to develop new methodologies and practices for the restoration and conservation of material cultural heritage. The venture also aims to intensify further the knowledge transfer processes between research and conservation practice and to impress more strongly on the public consciousness the importance of cultural heritage.