How about if tech discovery produced not a technology but a discoverer, a unit like a great person? This unit could be used to build a school that builds other units called scholars, who can also build schools or buildings and units and such that require the tech. So civs don't have techs, cities do, and because they have people that know them because they went there on a road or a ship. Later, knowledge will be able to spread by printed books or internet.
And on top of that a bit of Sim City like private enterprise, depending on civic. If you allow a certain amount of freedom, your people will build many biuldings for you at a discount, but will likewise do other things independently--like sell products internationally that can be reverse engineered.
