The Research Organisation will probably have a greater awareness of this fundamental truth than its Client will. The Client is more results oriented. The Client's vision is totally focused upon the outcome. Lost in that vision is the fact that an outcome is simply a peg in the ground at a given point in time. Technology is never finished.
Research begets research.
Discovery begets discovery. So it goes. I have never seen intellectual property that was incapable of being improved or enhanced. Although research and development is constantly evolving, one should not adopt a defeatist attitude towards trying to capture measurable results in a measured time line. The key is to identify the specific steps.