The article examines the legal bases and main directions of cooperation of the Sector “Ethnology of Ukrainians” of the Center of Ethnology of the Institute of Cultural Heritage (Moldova) with the leading scientific centers of Ukraine: the Institute for Art Studiies, Folklore and Ethnology, The Ethnology Institute, the Institute of the Ukrainian Language, the Institute of Encyclopedic Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, etc. and numerous universities: Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Odesa Mechnikov National University, Vinnytsia M. Kotsyubynskyi State Pedagogical University and others. It was found out that in the nowadays the cooperation vectors of the named and other scientific institutions have significantly expanded. Such vectors as ethnology, dialectology, ethnolinguistics, and linguistic didactics have been added to established connections in the fields of history, ethnography, folkloristics, literary studies, and linguistics. Emphasis is placed on the change of scientific discourse, focus on issues of ethnogenesis, ethnic history of not only titular ethnic groups, but also national minorities; problems of ethnic and linguistic identities and their potential in preserving the civilizational self-sufficiency of ethnic cultures, their interaction in borderland conditions; involvement in the European cultural space. Conclusions about close and fruitful cooperation and prospects for its development are illustrated by a significant amount of facts related to the training and retraining of scientific personnel, the implementation of joint scientific projects, expeditionary research, international forums of various formats, the publication of scientific literature and its exchange, etc.