Researchers, funding agencies, practicing professionals, end users and owners are often frustrated with the protracted process from research to practice. From the inception of new ideas, concept development, basic and applied research, product development, codification to final mainstream practice, considerable time is needed for success. For earthquake engineering, this is especially true due to the broad nature of the discipline. To help understand this process from research to practice, three simple behavioural mod- els are given: series, parallel and open market. These models are explained by critical review of seven case studies. For a successful transition from research to practice it is shown that a collaborative engagement between academia, the design professions and industry is necessary. It is concluded that for new ideas to be mainstreamed into general practice, enhanced undergraduate programmes are needed along with design professionals that can also teach and conduct basic research across the many facets of earthquake engineering.