The ONDAS Framework, developed by Dr. Omar Khasro Akram and Dr. Daniel José Franco, is a methodological framework for research design in Higher Education. It is designed to support undergraduate and postgraduate students, fresh researchers, experienced researchers, supervisors, academic staff, professionals, and institutions in transforming a research problem into a structured, coherent, and methodologically grounded research project.
Together, these components establish a structured pathway through which a researcher can move from understanding a research problem and its context toward methodological decisions, analysis, contribution, and appropriate solutions or outcomes.
The ONDAS Framework is closely associated with Reserchology, a developing methodological field concerned with understanding, structuring, and improving the research process. Reserchology emphasizes systematic research thinking, methodological coherence, critical reflection, responsible use of research tools, and the development of meaningful contributions to knowledge.
Rather than treating research as a collection of disconnected tasks, the ONDAS approach seeks to provide researchers with a coherent structure for navigating the different decisions that emerge throughout a research project.
The framework is intended to help researchers understand why particular research decisions are made, how those decisions relate to one another, and how they contribute to the development of a scientifically defensible study.
ONDAS supports researchers in progressively developing a research project through a structured sequence of stages.
The integration of Erasmus+ and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) extends the BAA environment without changing its fundamental scientific purpose.
Erasmus+ projects can provide researchers with a contemporary view of how universities, educational institutions, organizations, enterprises, public bodies, and other partners are addressing comparable challenges through international cooperation, innovation, capacity building, and collaborative initiatives.
The researcher may therefore use a relevant Erasmus+ project as an additional contextual benchmark after identifying the research topic and relevant scientific benchmarks. The process can help reveal:
However, the existence or absence of an Erasmus+ project does not itself establish a scientific research gap.
Following the identification of the research problem, gap, and prospective contribution, the researcher may then reflect on the relationship between the emerging research direction and one or more United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
SDG alignment is therefore intended as a reflection mechanism, not as an official certification or classification. The logical sequence remains:
rather than:
This distinction helps preserve the integrity of the research process while enabling researchers to communicate the wider relevance and potential societal significance of their work.
A distinctive feature of the ONDAS Framework is the critical and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence throughout the research process.
ONDAS therefore positions AI as a supporting research tool, while maintaining researcher autonomy and responsibility at the centre of the research process.
The ONDAS Framework can be applied across a broad range of scientific and academic fields, including:
The ONDAS Framework is designed for more than thesis writing. Its application can extend across different levels of research and professional activity.
ONDAS can help students and emerging researchers:
Researchers and professionals can use ONDAS to structure new studies, interdisciplinary investigations, applied research, innovation projects, and collaborative research initiatives.
Universities can use ONDAS as a methodological support environment for supervisors and faculty members who guide students through research development, monitoring, methodological decisions, and research quality processes.
Institutions can use ONDAS as a common methodological foundation for:
Organizations, public bodies, professional institutions, foundations, enterprises, and other research-oriented institutions can apply the ONDAS approach to structure research and knowledge-development activities around clearly defined problems, evidence, collaboration, and potential solutions.
The framework can also provide a common methodological language for universities and organizations working across institutional or national boundaries.
By identifying shared research problems, comparing relevant benchmarks, examining contemporary initiatives, and considering potential SDG relevance, participating institutions can develop a structured basis for discussing joint research projects.
Where appropriate, this may support the early development of collaborative proposals and international cooperation initiatives, including potential Erasmus+ projects.
ONDAS does not constitute an Erasmus+ funding mechanism or guarantee funding. Rather, it can provide a methodological structure through which partners can clarify the research problem, objectives, expected contribution, collaboration needs, and potential broader relevance of a proposed project.
Over recent years, the framework has been applied in academic contexts across several countries and has subsequently been complemented by a web-based software environment designed to provide researchers with digital support throughout the research process.
The objective is not to prescribe one research method for every discipline. Instead, ONDAS provides a structured environment within which researchers can make appropriate methodological decisions according to their research problem, discipline, objectives, evidence, and institutional requirements.
The fundamental purpose of ONDAS is to help researchers move from uncertainty to structured research thinking. It seeks to support researchers in understanding:
In this way, ONDAS provides a structured pathway connecting the research problem, existing knowledge, methodological decisions, evidence, analysis, contribution, and potential application.
“A multidisciplinary Reserchology development framework that provides a comprehensive structure for understanding, designing, conducting, analyzing, and communicating scientific research, with the purpose of supporting researchers in exploring unresolved areas of knowledge and developing evidence-based, innovative, and potentially applicable solutions.”
The framework is intended to evolve continuously as research practices, technologies, artificial intelligence, international collaboration, and societal needs develop.
ONDAS FrameworkResearch Design Methodology for Higher Education