So. Factions.

[Mercarryn]

Unlike the tons of quite-out-of-context posts (Yes, I am talking about all the research departments that suddenly came into being), I would give a shot to either Cryer, Ageira, Synth foods, Solar Engineering or Planetform, Kishiro, Order, Some Zoner groups. All of these are factions that base themselves around research.

You could also look at the major ship-builders like DSE, Samura/Kishiro, BMM, DHC, GMS/EFL.
These also have an extensive development search meant for the building of their ships, over their normal operations. And as you know (or now going to) developing new ships and weaponry takes an extensive research.

Yep, could not have it explained better, though I set DHC, Kishiro and Synth foods to a secondary role...

I remember that the Order had its OSD, which merged with Order| into Order|-SD, the Science Division. This part of Order| has ceased to continue when Tenacity and neko_soilder stopped playing. Perhaps someone could revive it.