The special nature of research projects

Inger Mewburn, Pat Thomson, Helen Kara and Aimee Grant recently published a book, Managing Your Research Project. The Research Whisperers think that it is a handy contribution so we asked the authors if we could publish this excerpt from Chapter 2: Approaches to project management. This post is drawn from pages 19-24 of Managing Your Research Project, 1st edition, by Inger Mewburn, Pat Thomson, Helen Kara and Aimee Grant. Copyright 2026 by Routledge. Reproduced with permission from the Taylor & Francis Group. Research projects come in many forms – applied, developmental, evaluative or data-driven inquiries – but regardless of type, they often operate in what might be called discovery mode. This mode is defined by open-ended exploration and inherently fuzzy deliverables. In discovery-oriented work, uncertainty isn’t an obstacle to be eliminated but a condition to be navigated. Research projects tend to unfold iteratively, even when they start with a clear plan. Researchers often find…