All sectors of manufacturing industry carry out research and development, or 1. . Research refers to the activities which create new 2. , and then they are put into practice as new 3. by development. Furthermore, research can be classified as 4. research, carried out mainly by academic institutions, and 5. research, carried out mainly by industrial laboratories. This article explores four types of research and development in chemical industry : (1) 6. , discovering and developing a chemical with specific use; (2) process development, resulting a process for a new product or a new route for 7. , the latter may be caused by using new technology, changing raw materials or increasing in demand. If a very large plant is to be built for a new product, a semi-technical or 8. will first be built and operated. Usually the process development needs a big team effort between scientists and engineers. (3) process improvement, finding a solution for an emerging case or improving the 9. of the process. Recently attentions are devoted to reducing the 10. of the process and to reducing 11. . (4) application development, discovery of new applications or uses for a product and providing 12. for the customer. The character and amount of R&D vary greatly across the sectors of the chemical industry. In the basic chemical sector, R&D expenditure is lower than that of other sectors and now most of it is devoted to 13. and 14. . By contrast, 15. and pesticide sectors spend a lot of money on R&D.