It can't be a simulation game without some form of Research! This game is chalk full of it.

Let's start with how you get it, because it is a bit unorthodox.
In every country you are allowed to build ONE research lab. It is costly to build, and only serves one function, to generate you research points.

To add a bit of strategy, it is up to the player how much they want to invest in the generation of research points. To do so, you hire engineers and scientists. Each worker in the building gives you a 0.5% chance of generating a research point. You can hire up to 100 engineers and 100 scientists to guarantee a research point every day (100%)

The reason I did it like this, just like in real life, there is a bit of R&G in R&D. Success is not guaranteed, and on the flip side, you might get lucky. If you have the capital, you can just hurl bodies at a problem, and it will be solved.

From there, that brings us to the research tree. Which looks nothing like a tree at the moment. It is filled with researches the player can complete. By completing researches, you can unlock the ability to mine/farm/refine/manufacture certain items.
If a research is completely colorless, that means that it has been unlocked.
If it has a slight color, that means that it hasn't been unlocked, and that you need to research its prerequisite before you can unlock it (Hover over it to see what research needs to be done first.)
A full color button means that if you have enough research points, you can unlock it.

Something you might notice about the researches is that some of them don't unlock anything at all. This is because they are for an item (or items) that are not in the game yet. I just put the researches in so that I know how much room I have to work with.
In the future, I hope to make it look more like a regular research tree instead of a series of buttons.

Upcoming:

DD10: Managers

DD11: News

DD12: Saving & Loading

DD13: Finances

DD14: ???