i don't want to see research made into an exploration department, but i'm fine with research focusing much more on exploration. random crew assisting on expeditions is soul that i don't want to see lost. i'm fine with RnD being killed off and just being kept as a laboratory for creating fun stuff or whatever.
researchers going out on expeditions more often in conjunction with xenoarchaeologists and xenobiologists would be ideal, though xenoarchaeology would probably need to be reworked to offer more interesting artifacts or points of interest and xenobiology the same but so that alien species on expeditions can be points of interest instead of slimes. asides from that, most away sites are meta'd at this point and don't really offer any interest or intrigue anymore, in the end they just turn into loot goblin runs. i think if there were more randomgen, both map and storytelling where able, it'd work much better.
honestly, a game cycle similar to Voices of the Void would likely work pretty well for research, where you could find, download, and process signals in order to find hidden points of interest on the overmap, whether it's some anomaly, a encrypted rescue signal, or a long lost ship.
example image for inspiration