Targeted area roughly recalled in intellectual sphere (8)
I believe the answer is:
academia
'sphere' is the definition.
(I know that academia is a sphere)
'targeted area roughly recalled in' is the wordplay.
'targeted' becomes 'aimed' (I've seen this in another clue).
'area' becomes 'a' (maths abbreviation).
'roughly' becomes 'ca' (abbreviation for circa).
'recalled in' is a reversal indicator (letters recalled or sent back).
'aimed'+'a'+'ca'='aimedaca'
'aimedaca' written backwards gives 'ACADEMIA'.
'intellectual' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for academia that I've seen before include "university types" , "The world of teaching" , "Universities etc." , "Scholarly world" , "scholarly life" .)