Short answers, pulled from the story.
Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to deepen understanding of a topic, and it is characterized by a particular attentiveness to controlling sources of bias and error.
The word research derives from the Middle French recherche, meaning to go about seeking, which itself comes from the Old French recerchier, a compound of re- and cerchier or sercher, meaning search. The earliest recorded use of the term was in 1577.
Qualitative research is subjective and non-quantitative, interpreting data for meanings, definitions, symbols, and metaphors, with types such as ethnography and phenomenology. Quantitative research asks a narrow question, collects numerical data, and analyzes it with statistical methods, using experimental, correlational, and survey designs linked to positivism.
The hourglass model of research starts with a broad spectrum of inquiry, narrows in on the project's specific method like the neck of an hourglass, then expands again into discussion and results. Its major steps run from identifying a research problem and reviewing literature through data collection, analysis, and communicating findings.
Artistic research, also called practice-based research, is research in which creative works are considered both the research and the object of research itself. It accepts subjectivity rather than rejecting it, and the Society for Artistic Research publishes the triannual Journal for Artistic Research.
Metascience is the study of research through the use of research methods, also known as research on research. It aims to reduce waste and increase quality across all fields by detecting bias, methodological flaws, and errors, and it has found low rates of reproducibility across many fields, known as the replication crisis.
Most funding for scientific research comes from three major sources: corporate research and development departments, private foundations, and government research councils such as the National Institutes of Health in the United States and the Medical Research Council in the United Kingdom. These are managed primarily through universities and in some cases through military contractors.