One of the terms used on this wiki.

I would like to define research as any kind of activity that adds to the store of useful common knowledge or wisdom.

Wikipedia borrows the OECD definition of research as

“creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge”

whereas I am interested in the actual addition to useful knowledge — one of the conditions of useful knowledge is that it is part of the intellectual commons, in principle freely available to all.

In adding to the intellectual commons, research supports education in several ways.