Research Agenda

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes" - Marcel Proust

In following our standard process, we analyse the current paradigm for consistency and adequacy against the evidence in our Anomalies Catalogue, and in this way develop a set of Open Issues, reflecting the areas where science may have to develop significant shifts in perspective. These areas are represented as well-formed (i.e. clear and meaningful) questions. In the next stage of the process these questions are prioritised and broken down to identify components that can be investigated scientifically (as science grows in competence, we expect all components of well-formed questions to become accessable to scientific methods). These specific investigation topics we then collate into a Research Agenda.

The Research Agenda is there to guide and inspire work of immediate tactical value. It identifies the work can most usefully be done to ensure overall progress in the mission of extending the boundaries of human knowledge, and prioritises such work in terms of the magnitude of its consequences for the paradigm (by reference to our Paradigm Model). By structuring this Agenda in terms of well-formed questions, we ensure that all the work it enumerates is practically doable in a scientific way, and will yield meaningful results that will allow us to choose between alternative potential interpretations of the evidence.

One of C-FAR's core views is that we have to take account of the full range of the anomalies evidence if we are to arrive a properly competent explanation of how the world works. By selecting a narrow field of interest, one can easily be led to a narrowly capable but ultimately wrong "explanation". Our Research Agenda will reflect the broad range of our Anomalies Catalogue and the multi-disciplinary nature of our investigatory approach.

The Research Agenda is currently in an early stage of development, as our present effort is largely focussed on establishing the Anomalies Catalogue and systematic Paradigm Model, which will underpin the building of a sound Research Agenda.