A research center is a facility or building dedicated to research, commonly with the focus on a specific area. There are over 14,000 research centers in the United States. Centers apply varied disciplines including basic research and applied research in addition to non traditional techniques.

A research institute is an establishment endowed for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural science research, there are also many research institutes in the social sciences as well, especially for sociological and historical research purposes.