psychical research: see parapsychology.

market research, organized use of sample surveys, polls, focus groups, and other techniques to study market characteristics (e.g., ages and incomes of consumers; consumer attitudes) and improve the efficiency of sales and distribution. Development of new products, opening of new markets, measurement of advertising effectiveness, and knowledge of business competitors are among its basic aims. Developed in the United States in the early 20th cent., the field expanded rapidly after World War II, spreading to Europe and Japan.

Research Triangle Park, research, business, medical, and educational complex situated in central North Carolina. It has an area of 6,900 acres (2,795 hectares) and is 8 × 2 mi (13 × 3 km) in size. Named for the triangle formed by Duke Univ. in Durham, the Univ. of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State Univ. in Raleigh, it is one of the largest research complexes in the United States. The park was created in 1959 by leaders from business and academia; by the late 1990s it was home to nearly 140 organizations, more than a hundred of which were related to research and development, and employed about 50,000 people. Companies represented there engage in high-technology research, development, and manufacturing in such areas as the health sciences, pharmaceuticals, computers, optics, and many other for-profit and nonprofit enterprises. Development of the park, which has no residential facilities, has caused surrounding communities to mushroom and has created some local transportation problems.

New School for Social Research: see New School Univ.

National Estuarine Research Reserve System: see under National Marine Sanctuary Program.

Mellon Institute of Industrial Research: see Carnegie Mellon Univ.

European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC): see European Space Agency.

European Space Research Organization (ESRO): see European Space Agency.

European Space Research Institute (ESRIN): see European Space Agency.

European Organization for Nuclear Research: see CERN.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), U.S. government agency administered by the Department of Defense (see Defense, United States Department of). It was established in 1958, in reaction to the successful launch of Sputnik by the USSR, as the Advanced Research Projects Agency. Although DARPA is only one of many military agencies administering research and development funds, it has been crucial to the development of several important technologies, especially military computers and the Internet. It funds a high percentage of all artificial intelligence research in the United States, as well as significant projects in microelectronics, materials, and behavioral science.

In industry, two closely related processes by which new products and new forms of old products are created through technological innovation. The work generally focuses on two types of research, basic and applied. Basic research is directed toward a generalized goal (e.g., genetic research in a pharmaceutical laboratory). Applied research directs the results of basic research toward the needs of a specific industry and results in the development of new or modified products or processes. In addition to carrying out basic and applied research and developing models, R&D staff may evaluate the efficiency and cost of the product.

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Application of scientific methods to management and administration of military, government, commercial, and industrial systems. It began during World War II in Britain when teams of scientists worked with the Royal Air Force to improve radar detection of enemy aircraft, leading to coordinated efforts to improve the entire system of early warning, defense, and supply. It is characterized by a systems orientation, or systems engineering, in which interdisciplinary research teams adapt scientific methods to large-scale problems that must be modeled, since laboratory testing is impossible. Examples include resource allocation and replacement, inventory control, and scheduling of large-scale construction projects.

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Study of the requirements of specific markets, the acceptability of products, and methods of developing and exploiting new markets. Various strategies are used for market research: past sales may be projected forward; surveys may be made of consumer attitudes and product preferences; and new or altered products may be introduced experimentally into designated test-market areas. Formal market research dates back to the 1920s in Germany and the 1930s in Sweden and France. After World War II, U.S. firms led in the use and refinement of market-research techniques, which spread throughout much of Western Europe and Japan.

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formerly New School for Social Research

Private university in New York City. It was established in 1919 as an informal centre for adult education and soon became the first American university to specialize in continuing education. In 1934 it established a graduate faculty of political and social sciences, staffed mainly by refugee academics from Nazi Germany. It also includes a liberal arts college, a graduate school of management and urban policy, the Mannes College of Music, and the Parsons School of Design.

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in full Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire formerly Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire.

International scientific organization established for collaborative research into subnuclear physics. Headquartered in Geneva, CERN includes extensive facilities at sites on both sides of the Swiss-French border. The results of its experimental and theoretical work are made generally available. It was established in part in order to reclaim European physicists who had emigrated to the U.S. as a result of World War II. In 2000 it had 20 European member nations and several nations with observer status.

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