This paper discusses the use and development of a research project planning and progressing system based on the system described by Baker&Smith (1967). It is an attempt to highlight some of the practical problems involved in setting up and developing such a system at Colworth/Welwyn, the largest Unilever research laboratory in the United Kingdom. The problem at Col worth/Welwyn, as at Port Sunlight, was to improve communications at all levels of management, and, in particular, to direct senior management's attention to those areas where it was most needed.The system described here is only a project control system, and does not formally cover other aspects of research management such as project selection and result implementation. A project control system was chosen as the starting point because it was regarded as the most important, and the easiest to implement throughout the whole laboratory.This paper was first presented at a conference to the R&D Study Group of the Operational Research Society, February 1970.