Explain root potential of research (11)
I believe the answer is:
exploration
'research' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'explain root potential' is the wordplay.
'potential' indicates anagramming the letters (another potential order of the letters).
'explain'+'root'='explainroot'
'explainroot' is an anagram of 'EXPLORATION'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for exploration that I've seen before include "Process of discovering new lands" , "Travel for purpose of discovery" , "Process of investigation" .)