In this paper we describe the design of a groupware framework. CIRLab, for experimenting with collaborative information retrieval (CIR) techniques in different search scenarios. This framework has been designed applying design patterns and an object-oriented middleware platform to maximize its reusability and adaptability in new contexts with a minimum of programming efforts Our collaborative search application comprises three main modules the Core, which supports various modern state-of-the-art CIR techniques that can be reused or extended in a distributed collaborative environment; the Facades Mediator, an event-driven notification service which allows easy integration between the Core and front-end applications, and finally, the Actions Tracker, which allows researchers to perform experiments on the different elements involved in the collaborative search sessions The applying of this framework is illustrated through the analysis of the collaborative search-driven development case study. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved