This contrast highlights how far research has evolved. Prior to the invention of science, people knew things. They may have learned them through direct observation, experience, philosophical thought, religious training or other means, but in some way they created knowledge and applied it to community issues. First, we had quantitative research. Then came qualitative research.
Qualitative research is associated more with words.
Sometimes information does not come in numbers, but in what people say, or in words written down from observing people's actions. Still, no matter how you slice it, defining knowledge through research was the domain of scientists. Enter applied research. The VRRI was created with the notion of applied research in mind. The techniques of scientific research were borrowed and refashioned by applied researchers and used to produce knowledge that would be of immediate value to practice.