if you don't research rocketry, nukes, superduper tanks, and a little bits of scrafice here and there. you'll find yourself in a good situation. because it only take a few upgrades to eventually make the IC that the research is taknig was repayed. IOW after some research is done you can continue to research to the end as if you hadn't researched it at all... then when it's all done, you got SOOOO much IC you don't know what to do with it, and since your conversions are almost 1 for 1... well it's acutally possible to keep the IC up! it's great very good to upt some research on it, but if you're a nation in lots of war, it's realy impossible... if you're USA though, it's a MUST!