Ack! So you can keep researching but you get nothing for it? LOL. That would be easy to mod. Just add a tech area of "General Research" to the research areas text file. Give it what ever the maximum allowable number for Maximum Level is. I am not sure what that is exactly. Should be able to work it out by trial and error. My guess is 255.
Then no components that need that as a prereq. You would get no tech from the research,but you would get a small bump in your score every time you reached another level since tech levels are factored into yoru score.
Geo