TaPRA is based on collegiality within a formal structure. It exists to advance the interests of theatre and performance research and its aims are:

1. To foster, sustain and promote original and innovative research at the highest level.
2. To enable and advance productive and dynamic research networks through an annual conference and interim events curated by the Working Groups and/or Executive Committee
3. To generate links and collaborate with SCUDD and other cognate organisations in defending research across Arts subjects in the UK.
4. To be an ambassador for research excellence in the widening disciplinary fields of theatre and performance
5. To encourage dynamic research among the PG community
6. To encourage and, where possible, fund initiatives for supporting and sustaining research excellence among ECRs as they enter employment
7. To facilitate dissemination of works of scholarship and practice-as-research through publication [print and online]