With continuous 'Research & Development', then we can have 'innovative' products (innovation) in the future. That's why companies usually have a 'R&D' department, and researchers there create innovative products for the company to sell.

Innovation is a new discovery whereas research may or may not be something new and development means advancement

Dear @Gaurav, please find some similar threads about this issue with good responses.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_basic_difference_between_Discovry_Invention_Innovation_Research_and_Product_development

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_innovation_more_important_than_research_If_so_why

Innovation is associated with "Novation" whereas Research is Re-search, 

With continuous 'Research & Development', then we can have 'innovative' products (innovation) in the future. That's why companies usually have a 'R&D' department, and researchers there create innovative products for the company to sell.

Hi,

According to me, Innovation is that, which is always useful in practical life / situation /problem. Whereas, Research may or may not be always useful in practical situation. Research may be sometimes not useful practically but Innovations are always useful.

"R&D turns money into knowledge, innovation is the process of creating business out of this knowledge. It’s about finding the best sustainably and commercially viable solutions to market needs. And it involves the integration of our competences in other disciplines, such as purchasing, engineering & manufacturing and marketing & sales.”..."

http://www.15inno.com/2015/03/02/rdversusinno/

http://manishrathi.com/2010/12/24/differentiating-rd-vs-innovation-a-conceptual-framework/

According ti wikipedia, R&D is a component of Innovation and is situated at the front end of the Innovation lifecycle. Innovation builds on R&D and includes commercialization phases. 

The activities that are classified as R&D differ from company to company, but there are two primary models, with an R&D department being either staffed by engineers and tasked with directly developing new products, or staffed with industrial scientists and tasked with applied research in scientific or technological fields which may facilitate future product development. In either case, R&D differs from the vast majority of corporate activities in that it is not often intended to yield immediate profit, and generally carries greater risk and an uncertain return on investment.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_and_development

Research and development, innovation, new product development and product design are often used interchangeably, but they each have quite distinct meanings.

Research and Development (R&D) is the process of creating new knowledge about products or processes. R&D is defined in the Frascati Manual written for the OECD as (OECD, 1981 cited in Walsh et. al, 1992: 20)

"Research and experimental development, (R&D) comprise creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge... and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise...new materials, products, or devices...new processes systems and services, or ...improving substantially those already produced or installed"

Technical or industrial innovation is used to describe a new breakthrough in a process or production technique or a novel product and it is used widely by economists. Innovation is defined by Walsh et. al. (1992: 16) as:

"The whole activity from invention (the discovery of a new device, product, process or system) to the point of first commercial or social use.."

Innovation, therefore can involve the exploitation of a new market opportunity, or on the other hand, the development and marketing of a technical invention; however it usually involves a combination of both since many inventions have no market demand and so do not constitute an innovation.

http://www.ruadesign.org/productdesignCh1.html

How can we differentiate Innovation and Research & Development?

Think Research & Development (R&D) is to discover & improve whereas Innovation is to transform into new outcomes.  Comparing both side by side, R&D is focusing on the process whereas Innovation is focusing on the outcome i.e. some R&D may lead to innovation & some R&D may not.

Agree to Han

Research & Development is  some sort of improvement in existing system/product. Innovation is  mostly creation of new system/product.

I want to quote two phrases:

@Ljubomir Jacić:

"R&D turns money into knowledge, innovation is the process of creating business out of this knowledge. It’s about finding the best sustainably and commercially viable solutions to market needs. And it involves the integration of our competences in other disciplines, such as purchasing, engineering & manufacturing and marketing & sales.”...".

@Han Ping Fung:

"Think Research & Development (R&D) is to discover & improve whereas Innovation is to transform into new outcomes.  Comparing both side by side, R&D is focusing on the process whereas Innovation is focusing on the outcome i.e. some R&D may lead to innovation & some R&D may not."

and the key phrases from http://www.eitdigital.eu/news-events/blog/article/the-saga-of-research-vs-innovation/ :

"... Research is a lever that provided with money will generate knowledge whilst innovation is a lever that provided with knowledge will generate money ..."

"... I have never seen a successful transition from research to innovation carried out by researchers?"

"... a researcher, is doing his activity for the pleasure of understanding technology, science, and to create knowledge. If you ask him: "what's that for" he is likely to shrug, saying that you never know, something that might seem useless today may have a tremendous impact tomorrow ..."

"... an innovator is focussing on hitting the market and making money ..."

".. Researchers and Innovators belong to two different worlds"

In my understanding,

(a) Research is a process, it is true, indeed

(b) Development is a product to be usefull for people, but is not a process

I'm interested to know about: if a Development is a very good business in earning a lot of money on the market, then can we claim "this Development is an Innovation" ?

Now I want to ask: Is an Innovation as the best Development?

I want to draw my viewing schematically:

Of every 10,000 Researches only 100 can be transformed to the Developments, and of every 100 Developments only 1 can be transformed to an Innovation in the market.

My resume is the following:

(a) Research must be incorporated into Development as part of a whole

(b) Profession "Researcher" must become like a Hobby (without any salary)

(c) The notion "Researcher" must be transformed to the notion "Researcher-Developer" or "Developer"

We believe innovation & research very often go hand in hand .For research in any areas demands something for for the change or for alternation which may helps us to process for the right shape for our research .

With our thinking contemplation & very often the concentration on our mind help us a source of inspiration for our action plan of our research .& it is very likely that in our working plan it may prepare us for the new search for our progress.

This is my personal opinion 

There is so many articles available in ResearchGate data base about this issue.

https://www.researchgate.net/search.Search.html?query=innovation%20and%20R%26D&type=publication

This is new, very good article: Research & Development - the foundation of innovation - insurers in crisis!

"The strategic significance of research and development for insurers is likely to increase as institutional investors begin to measure leadership on pipeline product development...

Many industry leaders may wish to consider the following:

• Establish a research and development department comprised of individuals from varying disciplines to explore alternatives, bringing insurers closer to the innovation curve. Many lag behind insurance related developments occurring outside the industry;
• Encourage, support and reward innovation from employees, they know client needs best; and
• Fully commit to finance and technology transformation strategies as the current cost of distributing and managing insurance policies is unnecessarily high. Re-deploy savings in future revenue generative activities..."

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/research-development-foundation-innovation-stuart-king-fcca?trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A577811291457688201848%2CVSRPtargetId%3A6109353628420624384%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary&trk=vsrp_influencer_content_res_name

I do want to recommend my good RG friend, a researcher @Maxim Kotsemir, as he is doing a lot of research in the field of innovation.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maxim_Kotsemir/timeline/publications

Article Conceptualizing the Innovation Process – Trends and Outlook