What do other stations have that we don't?

[Mordent]

I was never a very big fan of the 'go fetch' variants of research. Either way, on goon that'd probably be mechanics' job.

Or have a variety of departments/jobs able to contribute. Mechanics generate research points by scanning things (I'm still not quite sure why scanning existing technology helps you create new stuff, but there you go), geneticists do it by researching genes, scientists do it by researching artifacts.

Points can be spent on acquiring certain technology, fabricating those things requires a significant amount of material or a more normal amount of material plus some of the more exotic materials able to be mined (claretine, cerenkite, specific types of gem, uqill, miracle matter, koshmarite, viscerite for anything biotic). Artifacts could be broken down to create small amounts of the relevant materials in the case of having spares/mining isn't around.

This is kind of heading off into its own thread again, but I like the ideas in general.