The goal of the master thesis carried out, is to design an effective and efficient partner management at Roche Diagnostics Graz. An intergrated approach with clear responsibilities of the different roles should minimize the losses at the firms internal and external interfaces. At the beginning of the theoretical part the fundamentals of partner management are described. Also terms, reasons and forms of partnerships are illuminated. On this basis the research and development as well as the product development process are further explained. The effects of the product development process (PDP) on other business processes are given. It also states how the V- Model of the product development process connects to the partner management of R&D. Further the acquisition of technology and knowledge as well as critical success factors of R&D- partnerships are described. The specific stages of the R&D- partner process are illustrated in very detail. Modern concepts such as interdisciplinary and virtual teams in the development process, concurrent engineering, collaborative engineering and early supplier integration are explained. The theoretical part closes with the used methods and the partnership model. The analysis of the current partner management situation at Roche Graz is given in the first section of the empirical part. For this task direct and indirect methods were used. Also a SWOT - analysis was carried out. Eventually a categorization of R&D- partnerships as well as partner processes were developed in a to- be concept of the thesis.