Introduced in Enemies Without book allow PC's to perform research and improve their knowledge in certain fields. Rulewise they don't look bad, though authors could have share with us couple of ideas for what the research objectives or breakthroughs could be. Here's some of mine:

Eradication

Research quest name: "Find a Solution"

Problem: There are frenzied alien [your choices] coming out from the nest in [somewhere]. The nest seems to be able to regenerate or reincarnate even after the harshest of treatment. Maybe some kind of toxin would be able to debilitate it's ability to regrow.

Objective: Find a way to improve known toxin, so that it will be capable of eradicating whole alien nest when sprayed.

Breakthroughs:

- during the interrogation captured alien didn't want to cooperate, but he cursed and swared with a peculiar word. Investigation revealed that the word was a name of an [animal] associated with bad luck in this alien's culture. It turned out that this is because of the deadly poison that it carries in it's [body part].

- seeds of one of the plants gathered for research were mistaken for a recaf after being cut and dried. One of the characters prepared decoction with it, but noticed that it's smell is funny. After pouring it into pot with a plant in it he observed as the plant withered within minutes. It seems that the procedure of making recaf increases toxic properties of those seeds by thousands.

Plot Hooks:

- get a standard toxin or toxin coated weapon

- get a sample of said alien tissue or blood

- gather many different kinds of local flora and/or fauna to try them out as potential toxin sources

- capture living alien for experimentations

Communication

Research quest name: "The Stone of Tarrose"

Problem: Deep within the planet there's an alien labirynth and in it's center - powerful artifact that the PC's need for some reason. Labirynth is impossible to navigate without clues. Fortunately - they're written all over the walls. Unfortunately - They're in alien language of hieroglyphs.

Objectives: Decipher the hieroglyphs that cover labirynth's walls to safely navigate through it.

Breakthoughs:

- Near the entrance to the labirynth there is a slab covered with four different kinds of writings - high gothic ones, alien hieroglyphic (those being currently under research), and two other ones, unknown (or known, GM discretion) to players. It seems to be the same text in several languages. Yay! Now we can translate!

- One of the old books gathered before the research started turned out to be a journal written by an ancient alien diplomat, in which he combines his hieroglyphic alphabet with high gothic one. Now translate!

Plot Hooks:

- as in first breakthrough, but part of the slab with high gothic writing is missing. It was stolen by [someone] and is being held as a relic. Diplomacy or brutality will be needed to take a look at it

- [in a very dangerous place] lives a primitive tribe that has been using similar hieroglyphs for thousands of years. PC's may need to travel there to learn their dialect (maybe do something for them in exchange for knowledge)

- Some old books might have to be obtained to even start the Explication

Breakthroughs:

- while on a "session" with alien or xenoanimal PC notices that creature doesn't seem to be able to see a certain part of his clothing or room decoration. Mimicking properties of that thing's surface turns out to be effective way to camouflage against the unnatural sense

- same as above, but the creature doesn't notice PC while he's moving in a specific way (crawling, moving very slowly, keeping hands to himself etc.)

Plot hooks:

- try to find xenoanimals related to aliens under explication to experiment on them (should be looking for them on the world on which they evolved)

- try to capture living or dead alien to experiment

- try to steal alien's weapons and/or equipment to retroengineer them (try to think what would their mysterious sense be like if their weapons work like this and equipment works like that)

Detection

Research quest name: "To boldly go where no one has gone before"

Problem: While travelling aboard a voidship PC's learn that there's a shortage of asteroid miners in a company belonging to befriended Rogue Trader. Miners seem to die like flies because of the space kraken larvae that dwell within asteroids and eat them after being awakened by drilling. Larvae can be destroyed while encased within the asteroid, but for this a method to detect their presence is needed

Objective: Learn how to detect the presence of space kraken larvae inside asteroid in the void.

Breakthroughs:

- while passing by gas giant it is discovered that there's a type of space kraken tissue that reacts to even the slightest changes in gravity by emitting low energy electromagnetic waves. It is possible that concentrated gravity wave targeted at an asteroid will provoke larvae to emit the same kind of signal, which is easily detectable with any auspex

- hours or even days of analising tons of star charts and reports finally paid off! It seems that space krakens tend to proliferate only in certain star systems (or on specific warp routes, near specific stars)

Plot hooks:

- best measures are the boldest ones. If one wants to learn about space monster babies, he has to, at one point, penetrate the space monster's ****na. Objective of this expedition is to take sample of the mother kraken's ****na tissue ( PC's will have to fly into it with their ship) and run some tests. Maybe even make a spacewalk to examine eggs?

- gathering star charts and reports of kraken attacks from many systems might be necessary to even start the explication. There is even an archive aboard the ship with such data, but there's a problem - Gellar field seemed not to protect that section of the ship during last warp travel...