Help/Advice r.e. Faster Research

Last night, I completed a Standard, Regent game as Ghandi with the Space Ship victory.

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I've now completed my aim of winning all 6 victory conditions on Standard, Regent maps. Hurrah!
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Now, despite me being a Commercial Republic and later (mostly) a Democracy w/ Libraries, Unis, Labs built everywhere, with Newton's Uni and the SETI Programme built in my capital, the optimal number of cities for corruption purposes on Standard size (16 I think), I was still only able to research all the necessary advances to build the 'ship, and it was finished in 2027AD.

That's too slow, damnit!

If I'm playing a peaceful science game, what am I doing wrong?
How can I get a launch in the 1800s?
I've never completed the Modern Age in a single game - never researched a single Future Tech.

Help!

You need to play a higher level to speed tech up much more.

Buy or trade techs with the AI a lot. Don't try to research everything yourself especially at the beginning of the game.