University-industry partnerships alliances in the unconventional gas sector have faced public scepticism and challenges to their legitimacy, in a number of cases this has been due to concerns including; perceived conflicts of interest, a belief that research outputs will lack integrity and independence, and a lack of stakeholder representation in decision making. A number of controversies have emerged in relation to collaborative research partnerships in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. This paper aims to collate a number of lessons learned from such partnerships. Such lessons relate to organisational due-diligence, conflict of interest policy and disclosure, organizational governance, and leading practice in research integrity. The paper also provides a range of resources for practitioners to access.