Good point. It's intended more as a metaphor. Arguably, most companies' R&D departments are little more than "development" anyway. But it is a place where experimentation & innovation is the focus. Hackathons often come out as equally effective sources of R&D compared to formal corporate divisions.

But this is Hacker News. It's a bit trite splitting hairs over the definition of "research" and "hack" here, no? :)