diff --git a/packages/grafana-data/src/dataframe/processDataFrame.ts b/packages/grafana-data/src/dataframe/processDataFrame.ts
index 205a5edb888..fa60304f871 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-data/src/dataframe/processDataFrame.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-data/src/dataframe/processDataFrame.ts
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ import {
   TIME_SERIES_VALUE_FIELD_NAME,
   TIME_SERIES_TIME_FIELD_NAME,
   DataQueryResponseData,
+  PanelData,
+  LoadingState,
 } from '../types/index';
 import { ArrayVector } from '../vector/ArrayVector';
 import { SortedVector } from '../vector/SortedVector';
@@ -537,3 +539,37 @@ export function getProcessedDataFrames(results?: DataQueryResponseData[]): DataF
 
   return results.map((data) => getProcessedDataFrame(data));
 }
+
+/**
+ * Will process the panel data frames and in case of loading state with no data, will return the last result data but with loading state
+ * This is to have panels not flicker temporarily with "no data" while loading
+ */
+export function preProcessPanelData(data: PanelData, lastResult?: PanelData): PanelData {
+  const { series, annotations } = data;
+
+  //  for loading states with no data, use last result
+  if (data.state === LoadingState.Loading && series.length === 0) {
+    if (!lastResult) {
+      lastResult = data;
+    }
+
+    return {
+      ...lastResult,
+      state: LoadingState.Loading,
+      request: data.request,
+    };
+  }
+
+  // Make sure the data frames are properly formatted
+  const STARTTIME = performance.now();
+  const processedDataFrames = series.map((data) => getProcessedDataFrame(data));
+  const annotationsProcessed = getProcessedDataFrames(annotations);
+  const STOPTIME = performance.now();
+
+  return {
+    ...data,
+    series: processedDataFrames,
+    annotations: annotationsProcessed,
+    timings: { dataProcessingTime: STOPTIME - STARTTIME },
+  };
+}
diff --git a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/state/AlertingQueryRunner.ts b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/state/AlertingQueryRunner.ts
index 7ba736c15f8..93362a7cdcd 100644
--- a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/state/AlertingQueryRunner.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/state/AlertingQueryRunner.ts
@@ -11,13 +11,13 @@ import {
   rangeUtil,
   TimeRange,
   withLoadingIndicator,
+  preProcessPanelData,
 } from '@grafana/data';
 import { FetchResponse, getDataSourceSrv, toDataQueryError } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import { BackendSrv, getBackendSrv } from 'app/core/services/backend_srv';
 import { isExpressionQuery } from 'app/features/expressions/guards';
 import { cancelNetworkRequestsOnUnsubscribe } from 'app/features/query/state/processing/canceler';
 import { setStructureRevision } from 'app/features/query/state/processing/revision';
-import { preProcessPanelData } from 'app/features/query/state/runRequest';
 import { AlertQuery } from 'app/types/unified-alerting-dto';
 
 import { getTimeRangeForExpression } from '../utils/timeRange';
diff --git a/public/app/features/explore/utils/decorators.ts b/public/app/features/explore/utils/decorators.ts
index d8b6a04fa14..d62bd0b3aed 100644
--- a/public/app/features/explore/utils/decorators.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/explore/utils/decorators.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import {
   getDisplayProcessor,
   PanelData,
   standardTransformers,
+  preProcessPanelData,
 } from '@grafana/data';
 import { config } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import { DataQuery } from '@grafana/schema';
@@ -19,7 +20,6 @@ import { ExplorePanelData } from '../../../types';
 import { CorrelationData } from '../../correlations/useCorrelations';
 import { attachCorrelationsToDataFrames } from '../../correlations/utils';
 import { sortLogsResult } from '../../logs/utils';
-import { preProcessPanelData } from '../../query/state/runRequest';
 
 /**
  * When processing response first we try to determine what kind of dataframes we got as one query can return multiple
diff --git a/public/app/features/query/state/PanelQueryRunner.ts b/public/app/features/query/state/PanelQueryRunner.ts
index a71e2e9bd0c..0d6eb6c559e 100644
--- a/public/app/features/query/state/PanelQueryRunner.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/query/state/PanelQueryRunner.ts
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import {
   TimeZone,
   toDataFrame,
   transformDataFrame,
+  preProcessPanelData,
 } from '@grafana/data';
 import { getTemplateSrv, toDataQueryError } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import { ExpressionDatasourceRef } from '@grafana/runtime/src/utils/DataSourceWithBackend';
@@ -38,7 +39,7 @@ import { PanelModel } from '../../dashboard/state';
 
 import { getDashboardQueryRunner } from './DashboardQueryRunner/DashboardQueryRunner';
 import { mergePanelAndDashData } from './mergePanelAndDashData';
-import { preProcessPanelData, runRequest } from './runRequest';
+import { runRequest } from './runRequest';
 
 export interface QueryRunnerOptions<
   TQuery extends DataQuery = DataQuery,
diff --git a/public/app/features/query/state/QueryRunner.ts b/public/app/features/query/state/QueryRunner.ts
index 0720d9dafa6..7ed29e31db3 100644
--- a/public/app/features/query/state/QueryRunner.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/query/state/QueryRunner.ts
@@ -13,13 +13,14 @@ import {
   QueryRunner as QueryRunnerSrv,
   LoadingState,
   DataSourceRef,
+  preProcessPanelData,
 } from '@grafana/data';
 import { getTemplateSrv } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import { getDatasourceSrv } from 'app/features/plugins/datasource_srv';
 
 import { getNextRequestId } from './PanelQueryRunner';
 import { setStructureRevision } from './processing/revision';
-import { preProcessPanelData, runRequest } from './runRequest';
+import { runRequest } from './runRequest';
 
 export class QueryRunner implements QueryRunnerSrv {
   private subject: ReplaySubject<PanelData>;
diff --git a/public/app/features/query/state/runRequest.ts b/public/app/features/query/state/runRequest.ts
index 4c4006274ad..d7480fdaef9 100644
--- a/public/app/features/query/state/runRequest.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/query/state/runRequest.ts
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ import { catchError, map, mapTo, share, takeUntil, tap } from 'rxjs/operators';
 // Types
 import {
   CoreApp,
-  DataFrame,
   DataQueryError,
   DataQueryRequest,
   DataQueryResponse,
@@ -15,11 +14,9 @@ import {
   DataSourceApi,
   DataTopic,
   dateMath,
-  guessFieldTypes,
   LoadingState,
   PanelData,
   TimeRange,
-  toDataFrame,
 } from '@grafana/data';
 import { toDataQueryError } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import { isExpressionReference } from '@grafana/runtime/src/utils/DataSourceWithBackend';
@@ -204,59 +201,3 @@ export function callQueryMethod(
   const returnVal = queryFunction ? queryFunction(request) : datasource.query(request);
   return from(returnVal);
 }
-
-function getProcessedDataFrame(data: DataQueryResponseData): DataFrame {
-  const dataFrame = guessFieldTypes(toDataFrame(data));
-
-  if (dataFrame.fields && dataFrame.fields.length) {
-    // clear out the cached info
-    for (const field of dataFrame.fields) {
-      field.state = null;
-    }
-  }
-
-  return dataFrame;
-}
-
-/**
- * All panels will be passed tables that have our best guess at column type set
- *
- * This is also used by PanelChrome for snapshot support
- */
-export function getProcessedDataFrames(results?: DataQueryResponseData[]): DataFrame[] {
-  if (!results || !isArray(results)) {
-    return [];
-  }
-
-  return results.map((data) => getProcessedDataFrame(data));
-}
-
-export function preProcessPanelData(data: PanelData, lastResult?: PanelData): PanelData {
-  const { series, annotations } = data;
-
-  //  for loading states with no data, use last result
-  if (data.state === LoadingState.Loading && series.length === 0) {
-    if (!lastResult) {
-      lastResult = data;
-    }
-
-    return {
-      ...lastResult,
-      state: LoadingState.Loading,
-      request: data.request,
-    };
-  }
-
-  // Make sure the data frames are properly formatted
-  const STARTTIME = performance.now();
-  const processedDataFrames = series.map((data) => getProcessedDataFrame(data));
-  const annotationsProcessed = getProcessedDataFrames(annotations);
-  const STOPTIME = performance.now();
-
-  return {
-    ...data,
-    series: processedDataFrames,
-    annotations: annotationsProcessed,
-    timings: { dataProcessingTime: STOPTIME - STARTTIME },
-  };
-}