Research institute

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Researcher working in a laboratory.

A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing

applied research. Although the term often implies natural science research, there are also many research institutes in the social science as well, especially for sociological and historical
research purposes.

Famous research institutes

In the early medieval period, several astronomical observatories were built in the Islamic world. The first of these was the 9th-century

Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun, though the most famous were the 13th-century Maragheh observatory, and the 15th-century Ulugh Beg Observatory.[1]

The

Narayana Bhattathiri
(1559–1632). In attempting to solve astronomical problems, the Kerala school independently discovered a number of important mathematical concepts.

The earliest research institute in Europe was

Hughes Aircraft used a research institute structure for its organizational model.[3]

inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention in the late 1800s, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.[5]

Research institutes in Europe

From the throes of the Scientific Revolution came the 17th century scientific academy. In London, the Royal Society was founded in 1660, and in France Louis XIV founded the Académie royale des sciences in 1666 which came after private academic assemblies had been created earlier in the seventeenth century to foster research.

In the early 18th century,

St Petersburg. His plan combined provisions for linguistic, philosophical and scientific instruction with a separate academy in which graduates could pursue further scientific research. It was the first institution of its kind in Europe to conduct scientific research within the structure of a university. The St Petersburg Academy was established by decree on 28 January 1724.[6]

At the European level, there are now several government-funded institutions such as the European Space Agency (ESA), the nuclear research centre CERN, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) (Grenoble), the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) (Grenoble), EUMETSAT, the Italian-European Sistema Trieste with, among others, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics and the research complex Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, the biology project EMBL, and the fusion project ITER which in addition to technical developments has a strong research focus.

Scientific research in the 20th century United States

See also:
Research I university

Research institutes came to emerge at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1900, at least in Europe and the United States, the scientific profession had only evolved so far as to include the theoretical implications of science and not its application. Research scientists had yet to establish a leadership in expertise. Outside scientific circles it was generally assumed that a person in an occupation related to the sciences carried out work which was necessarily "scientific" and that the skill of the scientist did not hold any more merit than the skill of a labourer. A philosophical position on science was not thought by all researchers to be intellectually superior to applied methods. However any research on scientific application was limited by comparison. A loose definition attributed all naturally occurring phenomena to "science". The growth of scientific study stimulated a desire to reinvigorate the scientific discipline by robust research in order to extract "pure" science from such broad categorisation.[7]

1900–1939

This began with research conducted autonomously away from public utility and governmental supervision. Enclaves for industrial investigations became established. These included the

Carnegie Institution of Washington and the Institute for Advanced Study. Research was advanced in both theory and application. This was aided by substantial private donation.[7]

1940 onward

As of 2006, there were over 14,000 research centres in the United States.[8]

The expansion of universities into the faculty of research fed into these developments as mass education produced mass

environmental pollution and national defence.[7]

Notable research centres

See also

Footnotes

  1. doi:10.1086/349558
  2. ^ The Scripps Research Institute Archived 2002-09-14 at the Library of Congress Web Archives
  3. ISBN 978-0-9708050-8-9
  4. ^ "The Wizard of Menlo Park". The Franklin Institute. Archived from the original on 5 March 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  5. ^ Walsh, Bryan (15 July 2009). "The Electrifying Edison". Time. Archived from the original on July 18, 2009. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  6. ISBN 978-0-19-820531-9
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-0-226-70946-8
    .
  8. ^ Evaluating Research Centers and Institutes for Success: A Manual and Guide with Case Studies William R. Tash WT & Associates, 2006. 229 pages
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