University of East London UEL
Research and Development Support ReDS
Definitions of Research
1
Introduction
1.1
Research and Development Support ReDS provide proposal and contract support to UEL’s
externally funded research, knowledge exchange and consultancy projects. In some cases,
ReDS are responsible for determining if a projects main activity is classified as research or
non-research. This may involve discussion with the relevant PIs and/or colleagues in Finance.
This is particularly important in relation to recent HMRC changes to VAT charges.
1.2
The definition of research has been set out in a number of documents, most notably in the
Frascati Manuel1. For the purposes of various statutory returns (such as research income
figures returned under the Research Activity Survey and published by the Higher Education
Statistics Agency), research is defined by the conventions set out in the Frascati Manuel.
The Frascati Manual is the internationally recognised methodology for collecting and using
R&D statistics. Additional and supplementary definitions are used by HEFCE (RAE2009,
REF2014); RUCK; Charitable Funders; the NHS and more recently for practice-based
research.
2
Frascati Manuel and Definitions of Research
2.1
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) requires that income in respect of externally
sponsored research carried out by the institutions should conform to the Frascati definition
of research, which is set out in the Frascati Manual.
2.2
The Frascati Manual defines research as ‘research and experimental development (R&D)
comprise creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of
knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of
knowledge to devise new applications’
2.3
The term R&D covers three activities: basic research, applied research and experimental
development.
Basic research is experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new
knowledge of the underlying foundation of phenomena and observable facts, without any
particular application or use in view.
Applied research is also original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new
knowledge. It is, however, directed primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective.
1
http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?CID=&LANG=EN&SF1=DI&ST1=5LMQCR2K61JJ
Experimental development is systematic work, drawing on existing knowledge gained from
research and/or practical experience, which is directed to producing new materials, products
or devices, to installing new processes, systems and services, or to improving substantially
those already produced or installed. R&D covers both formal R&D in R&D units and informal
or occasional R&D in other units.
2.4
The Frascati Manual also gives examples of activities that are excluded from R&D except
when carried out solely or primarily for the purposes of an R&D project. These include:
Routine testing and analysis of materials, components, products, processes, etc; feasibility
studies; routine software development; general purpose data collection. The later stages of
some clinical drug trials may be more akin to routine testing, particularly in cases where the
original research has been done by a drug company or other contractor.
3
HEFCE definition of research for REF2014
3.1
For the purposes of the REF20142, research is defined as a process of investigation leading
to new insights, effectively shared.
3.2
It includes work of direct relevance to the needs of commerce, industry, and to the public
and voluntary sectors; scholarship8; the invention and generation of ideas, images,
performances, artefacts including design, where these lead to new or substantially improved
insights; and the use of existing knowledge in experimental development to produce new or
substantially improved materials, devices, products and processes, including design and
construction. It excludes routine testing and routine analysis of materials, components and
processes such as for the maintenance of national standards, as distinct from the
development of new analytical techniques. It also excludes the development of teaching
materials that do not embody original research.
3.3
It includes research that is published, disseminated or made publicly available in the form of
assessable research outputs, and confidential reports (as defined at paragraph 115 in Part 3,
Section 2).
4
RCUK / AHRC:
4.1
For all schemes except Research Networking and Follow-on Funding for Impact and
Engagement (FoF), the AHRC’s definition of research3 is as follows: research activities
should primarily be concerned with research processes, rather than outputs. This definition
is built around three key features and your proposal must fully address all of these in order
to be considered eligible for support:
4.1.1
It must define a series of research questions, issues or problems that will be addressed in the
course of the research. It must also define its aims and objectives in terms of seeking to
enhance knowledge and understanding relating to the questions, issues or problems to be
addressed
2
3
http://www.ref.ac.uk/pubs/
http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Funding-Opportunities/Research-funding/RFG/Pages/Definition.aspx
4.1.2
It must specify a research context for the questions, issues or problems to be addressed. You
must specify why it is important that these particular questions, issues or problems should
be addressed; what other research is being or has been conducted in this area; and what
particular contribution this project will make to the advancement of creativity, insights,
knowledge and understanding in this area.
4.1.3
It must specify the research methods for addressing and answering the research questions,
issues or problems. You must state how, in the course of the research project, you will seek
to answer the questions, address the issues or solve the problems. You should also explain
the rationale for your chosen research methods and why you think they provide the most
appropriate means by which to address the research questions, issues or problems.
4.2
The AHRC’s primary concern is to ensure that the research funded addresses clearlyarticulated research questions, issues or problems, set in a clear context of other research in
that area, and using appropriate research methods and/or approaches. The precise nature
of the research questions, issues or problems, approaches to the research and outputs of
the work may vary considerably, embracing basic, strategic and applied research. The
research questions, issues, problems, methods and/or approaches may range from
intellectual questions that require critical, historical or theoretical investigation, to practical
issues or problems that require other approaches such as testing, prototyping, experimental
development and evaluation. The outputs of the research may include, for example,
monographs, editions or articles; electronic data, including sound or images; performances,
films or broadcasts; or exhibitions. Teaching materials may also be an appropriate outcome
from a research project provided that it fulfils the definition above.
4.3
The research should be conceived as broadly as possible and so consideration should also be
given to the outcomes of, and audiences for, the research. The outcomes of the research
may only benefit other researchers and influence future research, but consideration must be
given to potential opportunities for the transfer of knowledge into new contexts where the
research could have an impact. Creative output can be produced, or practice undertaken, as
an integral part of a research process as defined above. The Council would expect, however,
this practice to be accompanied by some form of documentation of the research process, as
well as some form of textual analysis or explanation to support its position and as a record of
your critical reflection. Equally, creativity or practice may involve no such process at all, in
which case it would be ineligible for funding from the Council.
5
NHS
5.1
Only `health care research´ projects are affected by the Department of Health's Research
Governance Framework (the DoH Framework). Health care research includes BOTH
research conducted inside the NHS (e.g. with patients, NHS staff) and research conducted
outside the NHS (e.g. with healthy volunteers).
5.2
If a health care research project does not involve the NHS then before it can start the project
needs to be registered on URMS, be independently scientifically approved, and
independently ethically approved via the University's ethics review procedure. If a health
care research project involves the NHS then the above applies, except that ethics approval
must be sought via the NHS ethics review procedure and, in addition, R&D approval is
required from the participating NHS Trusts.
5.3
University research, defines research as 'investigation undertaken in order to gain
knowledge and understanding, including work of educational value designed to improve
understanding of the research process'. The NHS defines research as the 'attempt to derive
generalisable new knowledge including studies that aim to generate hypotheses as well as
studies that aim to test them'.
5.4
The University's definition of research is broader than that of the NHS. If in doubt the NHS
has produced guidance for researchers to help differentiate research, audit and service
evaluation. 4
6
Department of Health
6.1
The DoH Framework defines 'health care' research as: 'research concerned with the
protection and promotion of public health, research undertaken in or by the Department of
Health, its non-Departmental Public Bodies and the NHS, and research undertaken by or
within social care agencies. It includes clinical and non-clinical research; research undertaken
by NHS or social care staff using the resources of health and social care organisations; and
any research undertaken by industry, charities, research councils and universities within the
health and social care systems that might have an impact on the quality of those services.'
7
Practice based and practice led research
7.1
This is a form of academic research which incorporates an element of practice in the
methodology or research output. Within arts and humanities departments there are
ongoing debates about how to define this emerging research phenomenon, and there are a
variety of models of practice research (practice-as-research, practice-based, practice-led,
mixed-mode research practice and practice through research). The potential, nature and
scope for this research has been debated from the 1990s. Sir Christopher Frayling in 1993
adapted Herbert Read's model of education through art to describe different ways of
thinking about research, noting that research could be FOR practice, where research aims
are subservient to practice aims, THROUGH practice, where the practice serves a research
purpose, or INTO practice, such as observing the working processes of others5. Bruce
Archer's statement in 1995 shows the growing recognition of arts practice as research at this
time, "There are circumstances where the best or only way to shed light on a proposition, a
principle, a material, a process or a function is to attempt to construct something, or to
enact something, calculated to explore, embody or test it."6 This led to the acceptance of
practice research in these disciplines to be reviewed alongside traditional research
disciplines in the sphere of Higher Education.
7.2
The Arts and Humanities Research Council had a Steering Committee devoted to practice-led
research and its report was completed in September 2007.,7 titled AHRC Research Review in
Practice-Led Research in Art, Design and Architecture (Rust, Mottram, Till). This informed
continuing discussions by the Council for Higher Education in Art & Design (CHEAD) and the
AHRC resulting in an evolved notion of practice as research in art, design and architecture,
4
http://www.nres.nhs.uk/applications/guidance/research-guidance/
Frayling, C. (1993) Research in art and design. Royal College of Art: Research Paper
6 Archer, B. (1995) The Nature of Research Co-Design Jan 95 6-13
7 AHRC Research Review: Practice-Led Research in Art, Design and Architecture (2007) Rust, Prof Chris, Mottram, Prof
Judith, Till, Prof Jeremy, with support from Kirsty Smart, Peter Walters Mark Elshaw
5
media, and creative writing. This in turn brought an increasing recognition in the UK of the
ways in which creative departments contribute to research culture, a potential which
informs elements of the Research Excellence Framework 2014.