[quote=@Nerevarine]
[@Mihndar]
So like a civilization type "turns until research is complete?" Is it an additional 4 turns for completetion at rank? (Ex: 4 for first level of advancement, then 8, 12, 16 and so on) or is there a set time for each major project? 
[/quote]

Exactly. And no, you can set it to whatever you think reasonable. It's just to make sure nobody develops anything crazy without one of the GMs noticing, or takes an unrealistically small amount of time to research something.