Conservation is an inter-disciplinary and expanding field, which regularly draws on the knowledge bases of a number of other specialists. Conservation research projects benefit greatley from the collaboration of a variety of specialists both from within and from outside the field of conservation. Various issues taken from the authors' personal experience in ten years of fruitful collaboration will be explored, including the growing need to interface with research scientists outside the field. The breadth of knowledge required by conservation scientists and materials historians, as distinct from research scientists and historians of technology, is outlined.