Replication is a key property of living systems and must have played a central role in the origin of life. However, current models of protocells do not support an autonomous cycle of replication: membraneless organelles (coacervates) can sequester nucleic acids, but lack stability and impede proper base pairing important to RNA biochemistry, while membrane-bound structures (liposomes) can host prebiotic RNA biochemistry without being able to take in the required substrates. Our team suggests that the advent of life resulted from the emergence of a prebiotic ecosystem of synergistically interactive protocells rather than individual self-sustaining systems. Whereas RNA-based coacervates and liposomes have been studied separately, we innovatively propose that cooperative interactions between protocells might overcome major obstacles for replication in minimal cells. Inspired by symbiosis in biology, we envision that protocell synergy helped overcome this issue by enabling the primitive horizontal gene transfer (pHGT) between protocells, in order to unlock critical processes important to life. In living cells, liposomes and coacervates coexist, while performing different tasks. Similarly, their primitive versions might have had different, yet synergistic, roles in supporting RNA-based biochemistry, leading to a prebiotic scenario of increased complexity (introducing new functionalities) and diversity (improving fitness and efficiency). By elucidating the conditions required for coexistence, interaction and transfer between coacervates and liposomes, we will establish symbiosis as a novel factor in the origin of life, and at the same time gain a better understanding of the interactions between membraneless organelles and membranes in modern biology. The investigation of these three-way interactions between RNA, liposomes and coacervates constitutes a key innovative element, and will allow us to answer several questions fundamental to biology. We will illuminate i) how protocell recognition/interaction occur and ii) how genetic material is stored by and transferred between protocells, to build co-operative systems capable of pHGT. This unique opportunity will capitalize on each member’s set of expertise (Bonfio – membranes, O’Flaherty – nucleic acids, Spruijt – coacervates), that would otherwise be impractical without each member’s key contributions.