# Core Concepts

> Understand audiences, individuals, tasks, runs, materials and reports.

Source: https://imario.ai/docs/getting-started/core-concepts

These terms describe different parts of the research workflow. The distinction helps you select data, estimate cost and return to earlier work.

| Concept | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **Workspace** | The space containing your research, audiences and materials. |
| **Project** | An organizational grouping for work in a workspace. |
| **Task / conversation** | The context in which you work on a research goal, inspect results and continue asking questions. |
| **Run** | One research execution with a defined audience and scope. A conversation can contain several runs. |
| **Audience** | The population or segment being modelled, together with its definition and data basis. |
| **Respondent** | A simulated participant in a particular run. |
| **Synthetic Individual** | An individual whose profile you can inspect and who may be available for direct chat. |
| **Survey** | A saved questionnaire for structured responses. |
| **Discussion Guide** | An interview instrument, including questions and prompts for deeper exploration. |
| **Library** | Reusable surveys, guides, images, documents and reports. |
| **Knowledge Base** | Background material connected to individuals; distinct from data used to construct an audience. |
| **Result** | The output of a research run, available to inspect without first producing a narrative report. |
| **Report** | A separately generated synthesis over a selected scope of results. |

## Three roles for your data

**Audience evidence** helps define the people and what is already known about them: customer records, survey responses, transcripts and connected sources.

**Research material** is what this study asks people to react to: a question, image, page or alternative concepts.

**Individual knowledge** is background a connected person can draw on in an interaction.

Uploading a product brochure to a Knowledge Base does not create a representative customer population. Selecting an audience does not automatically show it every workspace document. Choose the location by the role the material plays.

## Access and usage

Some audiences require a separate access purchase. Research consumes credits, and generating a report may consume more. See [Pricing & credits](https://imario.ai/docs/workspace/pricing).

Continue with [Your first study](https://imario.ai/docs/getting-started/quickstart) or [Materials & connections](https://imario.ai/docs/materials/overview).