Slightly OT, but research related...
I think for each technology you wish to research, different tech teams effectively "bid" for it. Like in reality. So if I wished to research "advanced fighter" as UK I would recieve tenders from:
Supermarine
Hawker
Avro
etc.
So, instead of matching tech teams to a set of skills / specialities for research, all of their attributes should all be hidden and instead, each of them would say:
Cost = X per day
Estimated completion = Y days
(+/- hidden random variables, so not all projects actually get delivered when they say they will and costs go up (also like real life))
The player would then select a tech team to deliver a piece of work against a set time and cost.
However, it could include a manual option that would increase X thus decreasing Y and vice versa. This could be viewed as a "rush" option whereby extra money gets thrown at a project and a mothball option where the plans are stored and the project kinda ticks over waiting for additional funding... (Maybe non capitalists could spend IC instead of $$$...?)
Of course, each country would then be limited in tech team slots by how much it could *afford* to spend. So, similar to the Production window, different research could be prioritised at the expense of other research.
Finally, the output should differ from project to project. So, for example, if the advanced fighter was produced by Supermarine and it was well funded, it would produce a superior plane to one produced by Hawker or Avro which had erratic funding.
Whaddaya think? At least it would make money more useful than it currently is...