As I remember, Outcasts pretty well used Corvos back in days when techchart allowed in pewpewpew needs against CR and IMG and surprisingly no one wanted to make research RP on it. If you want that research ship for them - it'll should be like liner class-research ship with transport turrets, otherwise same usage as with Outcast Corvos would repeat again. So I think better to create something fresh and new for such ship, based on liner with bigger cargohold and etc.
