This is not a frozen expression that appears hundreds or even dozens of times in Google. It does not. But, for various, self-explanatory reasons, it is very common to begin exploratory research articles by calling them tentative, and the word מגששת fits that.

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Note added at 1 hr (2018-03-04 11:01:20 GMT)
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"Tentative" was the word I remember being used over and over. "Exploratory aim" is possible, but I believe that מגששת here is not emphasizing the act of searching, but rather the act of hesitating over something. Hence my suggestion "tentative". Also, something about "exploratory aim" sounds odd to me as a native English speaker.