You can't hold back progress. There's no turning back the clock. Thus, you have the Research Organisation on the one hand and the Client on the other. In common parlance, these two words are normally linked. I am not trying to play word games but the reader should at least be aware of this distinction.
Research is risky business.
It is far riskier to research something than it is to develop something. With research, you are taking an idea, or hypothesis, and seeing whether it can be developed into something. Part way into the research project, you may encounter an obstacle. The hypothesis may not be valid. The idea may not be well conceived.