Maybe a bit late to the party, but you need one of the Core Planets that can produce a research lab (Cato Neimodia stands out, as well as Anaxes if i am not mistaken). Usually, these planets are one of the Core Worlds so yeah, it's a race against time who gets there first, because after that, you can basically streamline to tech 5, while your opponent gets stuck at Tech 1, and after that, conquering the galaxy is child's play, especially because you get access to (in my case as i am a rep player) Venators and you can spam them and just launch legions upon legions of fighters/bombers to cripple everything

Its a nice Idea to have specific Planets needed for Research. But why there are only two in the middle of the Galaxy. Would there be one for each side near the starter Zone, maybe 2 or 3 Planets away. It would be so much better.

Is it possible to add them in the Planets.xml?

corulage can build the research facility

Thanks guys

Very late but Alderaan, Anaxes, Bothawui, Cato Neimodia, Corulag, Coruscant, Ithor, Muunilinst and Naboo are the planets you can build Research Facilities on.

To manually add more in, you will need to go to Specialstructures_Production.xml, find research facility, and go to <Required_Planets>