My opinion on this is, SOPs should not be required during the research phase. The main reason behind this is that during the research phase your project can take multiple phases. There could be second opinions or alternative ideas involved during the research phase. So there wouldn’t be any benefit in involving SOPs and considering them during this phase. For example, during the research phase an idea is launched and two months later everyone decides to change the idea to the point where everything would need to be changed. Then SOPs created during the research phase would mean nothing. Yes they are important and they might save us big time if involved during the research phase. But this is not always the case. Sometimes they may just be in the way of launching a perfect project idea. I do not have any industry experience so there isn’t much I can say on how it would be in industry. But based on my understanding I do not think SOPs should be required during the research phase.