This paper is an experience report on an initiative to incorporate requirements engineering practices into the development process of two large corporations. The project was framed by a government program to foster collaboration between academia, industry, and government agencies. Its expected result—proposals for cooperative work—is in itself a major challenge, since it was not decided from the beginning what aspect of requirements engineering would be covered by the proposals.
We describe the cooperation process followed by the project partners, three universities, and two companies, the difficulties found therein, and compare our experience with other reports on the issue of adoption of requirements engineering into the mainstream practice.