ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the possible effects of current Research and Development (R&D) policies on educational research, explores some of the dilemmas and critical issues they pose to researchers. It presents a study centred in educational research in Portugal in the last few years that will be taken as an example of the tensions featuring R&D policies and the work of researchers. It then presents the results of a study that revealed a strategic calculation made by researchers concerning R&D policies, taking educational research in Portugal as an example. The chapter presents the research methods, in the study and the results which showed converging and divergent strategies of researchers with regard to R&D policies. It discusses the coexistence of both strategies as a sign of the complexity of public policies. In convergent strategies towards R&D policies, researchers seek to adjust their scientific activity to the programs and initiatives of public authorities.
