Anomalies are a good idea no matter what. Right now there's not really enough reason to expand to the stars, anomalies would be a great way to encourage and reward exploration. Planets, stars, gas giants, black holes, etc. could provide bonuses to research fields, or make available special research projects that must be completed on site that give bonuses or make available special tech (like Advanced Railguns.)
Honestly, if I had my druthers, I'd take research labs out of the game entirely (or hack it so each race had a fixed number of 'phantom' research labs) and rebalance research costs so they weren't as exponential. Ideally this would make tech specialization both more important and more rewarding, and eliminate runaway teching. It is weird that conquering a world full of low-tech schmucks nets you a doubling of your research capability. ^___^
EDIT - To detail how that might work.
Regardless of your industrial potential, you get 4000 base rp / year. 4000 rp/year is the base output of a current 500m population start. Smaller starts would still have full research capability, but it would be burdensome in terms of wealth. Larger starts wouldn't have any direct advantage other than technology being relatively cheaper. For purposes of being similar to Aurora's current system, it's split between 10 'phantom labs' that each generate 400 rp.
Scientists get field bonuses just like they do now, and admin ratings that vary from 2-10 labs. This ensures admin skill is always relevant.
Currently, tech costs increase as following. I'm using Capacitor Recharge Rate as a reference.
1: 1000
2: 2000
3: 4000
4: 8000
5: 15000
6: 30000
8: 60000
10: 125000
12: 250000
etc.
Each tech is twice as expensive as the previous tech. This wouldn't work with a flat base RP scheme.
A problem I see with this scheme is that even if your race is specialized in a certain field, any race of equivalent tech level can be almost as good at it for a relatively paltry amount of RP.
1: 2000
2: 3000
3: 4000
4: 5000
5: 6000
6: 8000
8: 10000
10: 12000
12: 15000
Though the costs don't hike nearly as much it might actually be harder to get to some of the higher techs, because it's much harder to expand research capability.
More specialization might not necessarily be the greatest thing in some ways, since rushing tech is a bit easier. However, I think that would get kept under control by the same thing that keeps Auroras tech scheme under control: in Aurora breadth in technology is extremely important.
The big advantage of a flat base RP scheme is that it allows small high tech factions and big low tech factions to exist. In Aurora right now economic might = research might for all intents and purposes.