Established in 2013, the Innovative Models Promoting Access-to-Care Transformation (IMPACT) Centre of Research Excellence is a five year international research program, jointly supported by the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé. IMPACT aims to work with consumers, policy makers and providers in six communities (three in Australia and three in Canada) to identify, refine and then trial ‘world’s best practice’ innovations to improve access to primary health care, particularly for vulnerable populations. IMPACT is built upon a participatory approach, which includes all research users, including: policy makers, clinicians and other community members as part of the project team. In addition to building capacity within primary health care research, IMPACT provides an infrastructure to develop further opportunities for research that can optimise health for vulnerable populations.