Appart from the wiki entry on the topic not much is known about research at the moment, afaik.

Caspian mentioned that at the end of the 10 year lifecycle of the game we could see an early industrial or steam-punk Elyria.

Research isn’t research as most people are thinking of it. It’s not like RTS games where you research a specific technology. You have triggers or story-like hooks.

Event-Driven Triggers: You may have the option to research new technology based on changing world state such as the advancement of the story or going to war with another kingdom.

Skill & Mastery-Driven Triggers: If you get specific skills to a certain mastery, the synergy between the different skills may provide you with additional research opportunities. For example, achieving mastery in certain carpentry and tailoring skills may provide you the opportunity to research interesting new technologies.

Resource-Driven Triggers: Having multiple resources in your inventory that can be combined together in new and unique ways can often provide you the ability to do research. For example, if you’ve got copper and tin ore in your inventory and attempt to make a copper bar, you may be able to research bronze.

Location-Driven Triggers: Some technologies require characters to be in specific locations in order to unlock specific technologies. This makes sense intuitively. After all, it doesn't really make sense for someone who's land-locked to be researching boat-making.

Based on this system, there is some amount of meta-game thinking allowed. We want players who understand the relationship between certain materials, the components they make, and the final product to play a role. If I, as a player, know how to construct a telescope, I should be able to use that information when guiding what I research to eventually lead to the discovery of a telescope.

Another important thing to note about this system is we may provide a large number of prompts, across a wide number of skills without actually having the assets or mechanics in place to support the research players are doing. But, by monitoring and observing what players are researching it communicates to us what the players’ interests are and can push us to implement additional technologies.

But even with all the possibilities SBS will have final say on what technologies that are actually added. They’ve said it is possible one or more servers could develop some tech like gun powder or the steam engine while others won’t. Each server will be driven by how we the players choose to push/advance the story.