R-and-D - Tradução em português

Hi everyone! I'm here again to one more doubt

I'm gonna get straight to the point. This is the text:

"Mike Splinter, the C.E.O. of Applied Materials, has put it to me this way: "Outsourcing was 10 years ago, where you'd say. 'Let's send some software generation overseas.' This is not the outsourcing we're doing today. This just where I am going to get something done. Now you say, 'Hey, half my Ph.D.'s in my R-and-D department would rather live in Singapore, Taiwan or China because their hometown is there and they can go there and still work for my company.' This is the next evoulution" He has many more choices.

What R-and-D means?