This guidance provides a practical guide to support those working in heritage management to develop or update a research framework. It is aimed at everyone involved in the process: from those commissioning a framework to those running a project to create one. The guidance is not meant to be prescriptive, setting out the “correct” way to develop a framework. Instead, its aim is to illustrate the wide variety of frameworks developed to support European archaeology, and set out a number of steps and considerations that can help you think through the processes and all the different aspects involved in creating the appropriate framework for your needs. This guidance has been developed by the Working Group on Developing Guidance on National Research Frameworks of the European Archaeological Council. This document is a pdf version of web guidance which can be found on the European Archaeological Council website. Case studies of a number of national level research frameworks are provided as supplementary documents.