Who forges the partnership?

Additional support from the WMF/chapters for such projects would indeed be helpful, specifically for developers/tech support.

We had some resources (from Wikimedia Germany) to put towards buying a few servers to support OSM work and integration with Wikipedia. But to make the project really work, there needs to be someone dedicated to provide technical support and development. It's hard to find people with the technical expertise + enough spare time to do the necessary work. So, there's quite a bit that's just not getting done right now that could/should be.

If the basic work is done to get the ability to add OSM maps to Wikipedia, then the potential for further maps and data integration (e.g. census data) is huge. With that comes, the ability to approach governments/organizations about sharing data/content and working with what's already being released. (e.g. the Open Government Initiative in the U.S.)