• Basic research analyses properties, structures, and relationships with the aim of formulating and testing hypotheses, theories, or laws, producing new knowledge. The results of basic research do not have a specific application in mind or an immediate commercial use, and are typically published in scientific journals and/or shared within the scientific community interested in the subject. Occasionally, the publication of basic research may be restricted for reasons of national security.
• In basic research, it is expected that the researcher has some freedom to define objectives. This type of research is usually carried out in the higher education sector, and also, to some extent, in these or other public sector institutions. Basic research can be oriented or driven towards certain areas of general interest, with the explicit aim of a series of future and not immediate applications. Private sector companies may also conduct basic research, even when specific commercial applications are not expected in the short term. For example, research on certain types of energy-saving technologies can be described as basic, according to the definition above, if it is not aimed at a specific use. However, it has a specific direction: improving energy savings. In the Manual, this kind of research is referred to as 'oriented basic research'.
• Oriented basic research can be distinguished from 'pure basic research' in the following way: 'pure basic research' is developed with the aim of advancing knowledge, without seeking economic or social benefits, nor making an active effort to apply the results to practical problems or transfer the results to sectors responsible for their application. 'Oriented basic research', on the other hand, is conducted with the expectation that it will produce a broad knowledge base likely to become a foundation for solving recognized or anticipated, current or future, problems or opportunities.

Applied Research refers to original research conducted with the aim of acquiring new knowledge, distinguishing itself from basic research by being oriented towards a specific and practical end or objective.

• Applied research is undertaken either to determine possible uses for the findings of basic research, or new methods or ways of achieving specific and predetermined objectives. It involves considering the available knowledge and its extension in order to solve actual problems. In the Business enterprise sector, for example, the distinction between basic and applied research can be pinpointed by the creation of a new project to explore promising results of a basic research programme (moving from a long-term to a medium-short term perspective in the exploitation of the results of intramural R&D).
• The results of applied research are primarily intended to be valid for possible use and application to products, operations, methods or systems. Applied research gives ideas their operational form. The applications of the knowledge derived can be protected by intellectual property instruments, including confidentiality.

Experimental Development is a systematic effort that builds on knowledge acquired through research and practical experience, producing additional knowledge aimed at developing new products or processes or improving existing ones.

• It is not “product development”: the concept of experimental development should not be confused with 'product development.' The latter refers to the overall process—from the formulation of ideas and concepts to commercialization—aiming to bring a new product (good or service) to the market. Experimental development is merely a possible phase in the product development process: the phase in which generic knowledge is effectively tested for the specific applications necessary to complete that process successfully. During the experimental development phase, new knowledge is generated, and this phase ends when the R&D criteria (new, uncertain, creative, systematic, and transferable and/or reproducible) no longer apply.
• It is not “pre-production development”: the concept of experimental development should not be confused with 'pre-production development.' The latter refers to the non-experimental work on a product or system before it enters production. It is difficult to accurately define the cutoff point between experimental development and pre-production development. The distinction between these two categories requires an 'engineering judgment' regarding the moment when the element of novelty ceases, and the work transitions to the routine development of an integrated system.

The order in which the three categories of R&D activity are listed is not intended to suggest that basic research leads to applied research, which in turn leads to experimental development. The latter can even inform basic research.

The 2015 Edition of the Frascati Manual one may also find concrete examples of how to differentiate the types of R&D in natural sciences and engineering [pp. 53-55], as well as in social sciences, humanities, and arts [pp. 56-57].