The Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education (SIESWE) is currently working in partnership with the Scottish Executive to produce a Research and Development Strategy (R&D Strategy) for the social services in Scotland. This falls under the Practice Governance Change Programme of Changing Lives Implementation Plan (Scottish Executive, 2006). In order to help us build a better picture of practice-related research and to identify key people with whom to hold further discussions, we are using a series of questionnaires which will be followed up with interviews to inform the research and development strategy. We are also analysing and considering Scottish data gathered through a joint consultation exercise with Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) relating to their consultation on social care research capacity and data gathered by the Scottish Executive by way of self-assessment forms linked to the Changing Lives Implementation Plan. Both of these will also inform the development of the strategy.