Higher education institutions conduct practice-based research. This research is done by lectorates (also used is professorships); these are research groups in which the lecturer/professor as leading researcher, carries out research projects and programs together with researchers, teachers and students.
Characteristic of practice-oriented research is the cooperation with the professional field, and the impact that the research aims at in the field of education, research and practice. What is special about research in the arts is that art or design practice can also be the subject of research, as well as the educational-practice of higher arts education. More and more often questions and collaborations also come from other (non-artistic) domains.