Research is estimated, sometimes those estimates are hilariously bad (Computer vision is easy, a summer research for a student should be enough), but more often than not it's "We expect that this research will take someone doing a Ph.D approximately 3 - 5 years to do"

The entire premise of a project is "Look at this, with the intent to find X, and, if it's not possible, break it down so that we can create more projects to work toward that goal" which is an estimate, or a breakdown into sub projects that also come with estimates.