The long-term goals of developing research within the specialty of emergency medicine (EM) include the following: 1) to continue to improve the quality and quantity of EM research in order to ultimately improve emergency patient care; 2) to maximize the research potential of emergency health care professionals in order to develop new emergency research talent and enthusiasm; and 3) to establish the academic research credentials of the specialty of EM in order to become competitive for federal research funding, and further improve emergency patient care. This article addresses the process by which the infrastructure for EM research can be developed at academic medical centers and provides recommendations. The roles of the academic chair, research director, senior researcher, and departmental faculty are discussed.