Allow us to research what we want, but you really want to keep is at least a little bit complicated you could use something like that:

+ find new technology  - this would work like current research which would randomly research stuff and it would unlock tech you can research later on
+ analyse known tech  - this would show you the list of known technologies which you could research using selected kernels (and it would show you how much % you would get)

That would also prevent losing kernels when you don't have enough to get tech up

"you're not in an MMO to make friends, you're there to make enemies "