Research Agreements

[Moginheden]

I haven't been able to find a good detailed guide on the inner workings of research agreements in civilization 6.

Here are the mechanics I'm aware of (some might be wrong please correct me or post additional info if you have it.)

1. You need to be friends or allies with another civ to start one.
2. Both you and the other civ needs the tech Scientific Theory.
3. You can only gain the bonus on technologies from research agreements, not a specific amount of science. This bonus can be enough to finish the tech if you were already researching it and don't have the bonus, but will not stack with another bonus.
4. Both civilizations gain the bonus on any technology between where they are in the tech tree and the target of the research agreement when it finishes, (and nothing extra during its duration) (This will only give you the bonus for techs the other civ hasn't already researched when you start the agreement.)
5. The research agreement instantly finishes, (granting all bonuses) if either civ completes researching the target technology.
6. The further both civilizations are from getting the tech, the longer the agreement takes to finish. (I think this checks both civs, but it might be the further behind one, or maybe even the closer one, duno. )
7. You can have only 1 research agreement active at a time per civilization, but can have more than one active as long as it's with someone else. Also you can start a new one immediately after the previous one finishes.
8. Research agreements take very slightly less time than researching the tech would. But they only give half the results, (less if you already have the bonus for some missing techs.) However they allow parallel tech tree progression.
9. The AI will pay you to do a research agreement with them if they are ahead on tech, but will demand payment from you if you are ahead, (presuming your reputation with them doesn't adjust how good a deal they give you.)
10. The target of a research agreement has to be a technology neither you nor the other civilization has researched, and one neither of you have the bonus for.
11. The target of the research agreement can't be too far ahead of where you are in the tree... I don't know the specifics of this, but it combined with the bonus restrictions sometimes means research agreements are not available at all.

 

[Moginheden]

I made some updated to observed rules.

I thought before you couldn't have more than one research agreement active at a time, but I just started both plastics with Sumeria and satellites with Japan on the same turn.

I had 54 turns till I would self-research advanced flight and the research agreement claimed 40 turns. It actually finished in 16 turns when Sumeria finished the tech. I only got 2 of the 4 bonuses I was looking for.