ABSTRACT
The relationship between research and development is often taken for granted in academic and scientific communities. Research is assumed to be a ‘good thing’ and development is assumed to occur through the trickle-down effects of publication and conference presentation. Some companies engage researchers to work specifically on research projects which have a prospect of leading to a profitable development. In such circumstances the development stages and outcomes are the ‘real’ measures of research productivity, whereas in the former circumstances, research productivity is measured by competitive grants won and publications accepted. In most cases, research in distance education has been more like the former, although often tinged with the constraints of funding bodies requiring research into particular areas. In Australia, one way in which research into open and distance education has been promoted is through the tendering processes of the Australian Government’s Department of Employment, Education and Training. Such research is focused on government priorities, for example, in the areas of new communications technologies, and is often constrained by very tight deadlines for both the submission of tenders and final reports.
