化学工程与工艺 专业英语（二）.pptVIP

Unit2 research and development Research and development, or RD as it is commonly referred to, is an activity which is carried out by all sectors of manufacturing industry but its extent varies considerably, as we will see shortly. Let us first understand, or at least get a feel for, what the terms mean. Although the distinction between research and development is not always clear-cut, and there is often considerable overlap, we will attempt to separate them. In simple terms research can be thought of as the activity which produces new idea and knowledge whereas development is putting those idea into practice as new processes and products. To illustrate this with an example, predicting the structure of new molecule which would have a specific biological activity and synthesizing it could be seen as research, whereas testing it and developing it to the point where it could be marketed as a new drug could be described as the development part. 1.Fundamental Research and Applied Research In industry the primary reason for carrying out RD is economic and is to strengthen and improve the company’s position and profitability. The purpose of RD is to generate and provide information and knowledge to reduce uncertainty, solve problems and provide better data on which management can base decisions. Specific projects cover a wide range of to activity and time scales, from a new months to 20 years. We can pick out a number of areas of RD activity in the following paragraphs but if we were to start with those which were to spring to the mind of the academic , rather than the industrial, chemist then this would be basic, fundamental (background) or exploratory research and the synthesis of new compounds. This is also labeled “blue skies” research. Fundamental research is typically associated with university research. In may be carried out for its own intrinsic interest and it will add to the total knowledge base but no immediate applications of it in