I agree with those who said that SOPs are not needed for the research phase of a project. It is important to remember that SOPs are very specific, detailed instructions that tell how you how to perform a routine procedure, and they are mostly used in manufacturing. Research is the opposite of routine, so SOPs for research would not make sense. I think what several posts above were referring to is just general company guidelines or procedures that explain how to go through the research phase of a project to ensure that the research team remains focused during the research phase. However, I would not refer to these as SOPs. These documents would be much higher on the Quality System hierarchy than an SOP.