The increasing demand for research-based evidence in the development of policy and practice presents the research community with new opportunities and challenges. We are still troubled by accusations of poor quality and lack of impact. A national research policy, designed to respond to these criticisms, has emerged recently which promotes a 'big science' model of research. This increasingly silences other approaches and opens up unhelpful divisions; a particular problem is the re-emergence of epistemological divisions--the paradigm wars. A 'big science' policy for research is also inappropriate in a world where practitioners increasingly want and need to engage in research themselves as a key strategy in 'knowledge transfer'. The paper concludes by arguing that we need to defend a rich and diverse range of approaches to research, promoting debate about quality within different sub-communities and encouraging open discussion across epistemological and methodological boundaries.