Research besides teleportation

[Falcrack]

What other research options will be available to the player? Better engines, stronger weapons and shields, equivalent stats but cheaper resource costs etc? Will research only apply to modules that can be installed on ships, or can you research improvements to the base ship (like stronger hull, more powerful laser generator, higher speed, etc)? Can you research superior station modules (ie faster production, stronger hull, etc)?

Will research modules be one of the modules you can add to an existing station? Perhaps research modules can only research improvements to items if another module that produces that module exists on the station (ie shield research requires shield production module on the same station, ship improvements are possible if a shipyard module is part of the station, etc).

Will active research modules have a running cost in terms of credits per hour? Research is one of those things that really needs time to get up to speed if it hasn't been done in a while, so maybe the longer it has been continuously active, the faster the rate of research?

Will factions or NPC corporations also be involved in research, slowly improving the quality of their ships over time? So that the player does not gain too much of an advantage over time, but must research or risk falling far behind? In other words, that fancy ship you got at the beginning of the game will get comparatively less nice compared to other ships in its class after maybe 10-20 game hours.

I would hope that research would be a relatively slow process, which could be increased by building a larger number of research modules, or as I mentioned earlier, having it be continuously funded over time without interruption.

If you can improve ships or ship components via research, will there be a cap on the max level you can improve it? After which point, no more research can be done? Or will small, incremental improvements be available continuously?

If you've researched an improved module or ship type, could you retrofit the existing module or ship to upgrade it to the newer, better version?

If some other faction has researched a more powerful shield variant, for example, could you purchase the blueprint for the better shield so that you could begin to manufacture the superior version yourself? Could you sell your research data to others to make some quick cash if you don't mind giving up a technological advantage?

I'd hate for research to be a one trick pony of discovering the personal teleporter, and to have no use after that point. If the answer from the devs is a disappointing "NO" to these questions (the most likely possible answer IMO), would something like what I have outlined here be within the realm of modding? Or be a consideration for an expansion/DLC?

[Fulgrymm]

I voted yes, but I seem to recall the official answer being no to further research.

[Alan Phipps]

Also see this thread and its link to a further discussion.