When first reading this post, I thought yes SOPs should be used in the research phase as well as development phase. However, thinking more about it I think the research phase is when there is more creativity and you’re trying new things, so it might not make sense at that stage to have the detailed procedure on how to perform detailed tasks because you’re still in the research phase unless as Dr. Simon mentions in lecture, you’re performing an assay or something repeatable. I do however think its imperative to have SOPs for the development phase.