So, I'm playing my first all-factories game, on Painful with the Krynn.  

Actually, I'm only sort of playing all factories.  In my last few games I've played a sort of bastard all-facs, where I only build factories except on the bonus squares, and also keep the sliders at, like, 60% research, which is, I believe, completely goofy from an all-facs-strategy perspective, which relies on the efficiency of production keeping the ol' sliders heavy on social and military and using focus to do research.  So I did that the first several months, then read a bit more on the strategy and decided to go with the pure version.  So I dutifully slid the sliders to 50/49/1 (on the notion that maybe some research funding was needed for creativity) and watched my empire boom, pretty much.  

Only it's now the end of the colony rush, and what I pretty much want to produce is research.  I've got nearly half the galaxy, and, thanks to an early commitment to exotic worlds, the careful purchase of some obnoxiously-placed planets, Krynn influence, and a diplomatic advantage leftover from my early tech rush, pretty good galactic relations.  Won't last of course, but while it does I really want to burn through the sensors for Eyes, and up to stock markets, and up the miniaturization tree for tiny constructors, and even though I'm a complete tech-slut ain't nobody going to do missiles for me, especially since I researched lasers and sold 'em to the whole galaxy so they'll all be running beams when I descend with missile-armed-barrier-defended-warp-bubble-command-ship fleets, but that's a military secret so don't tell anyone.  

The question is, is it heretical in all-facs to slide the research slider over to 80% and let efficiency be hanged?  Or is there another way to drive the research effort that I'm missing?  'Cause right now the Thalans, with a fifth my planet/economy base, are outresearching me, and that just burns my bacon.  

Thanks!