We describe the experience of RNP, the Brazilian NREN, in creating advanced Internet services in partnership with the national research community in networks and distributed systems, how this model was later adopted with adaptations by the RedCLARA (Latin American regional network) community, and also some successful results in both of these domains. The RNP Working Groups programme was launched in 2002 with the objective of developing collaborative projects between RNP and research groups, to demonstrate the feasibility of using new network protocols, services and applications. The development teams are called Working Groups (WGs), formed by a coordinator, who is usually a researcher in a public or private university or research institution, and a team of assistants. RNP staff members follow closely the activities of the WG. The WG concept has been adopted at RNP both for developing new end-user application service, and also for introducing new technologies into core areas such as security services, performance monitoring and dynamic provisioning of virtual circuit services, in order to accompany international trends to add such advanced features to the service offerings of research networks. The paper also describes related work in theRedCLARA community to coordinate development activities carried out by Latin American NRENs, to establish working groups to study and propose new services for RedCLARA.