This symposium explores emergence in research projects that are dynamic and complex, where researchers are constantly changing the direction of the project as it unfolds. It presents a theoretical framework for such an exploration using the language of complexity in terms of concepts such as emergence, complex systems and enabling constraints. We weave the example of our symposium group processes to illustrate the concepts. We use the framework to compare three different projects which have given rise to emergence, i.e., the creation of a new phenomenon, and consider how these concepts echo through the varied research investigations. Researchers might find this framework liberating in research that is dynamic and complex. We have chosen to combine all the presentations in the symposium into one paper because it enables us to display the multi-layered nature of complexity thinking.